These Words — Natasha Bedingfield
I hadn’t heard “These Words” by Natasha Bedingfield for years…until it popped up on the car radio the other day.
This is the main reason I listen to the radio in the car instead of a streaming service…you never know quite what the next song will be and, every now and again, you get a delightful surprise. A fond reminder of a song you haven’t heard in far too long.
“These Words” was a UK Number One in 2004 and went Top 20 in the Billboard Hot 100. While not her only hit, it was the biggest hit of Natasha Bedingfield’s career to date.
I really like the quirkiness of “These Words”. It’s got a somewhat loose structure, although it does have a segment we might recognise as a chorus to help anchor the song in our brains. Away from the chorus, Natasha Bedingfield half-sings, half-raps her way through the song in a style that keeps us fully engaged with the story.
But more than anything I love the lyrics of “These Words”.
They were inspired, apparently, by Natasha Bedingfield’s struggle to write the lyrics for her album, and they play off the idea that she’s been trying all sorts of clever ways to write a love song, but in the end, the words she’s written just come down to “I love you”.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I reckon about 95% of popular music is about…
