Lisa Stansfield’s third solo album is entitled So natural and it’s released in November 1993; only Lisa and Ian Devaney wrote and produced this album while Andy Morris, who worked together for the Blue Zone and for the first two records Affection and Real Love, didn’t collaborate. In this album, however, there is a song composed by the trio that is In all the right places, written for a James Bond’s movie soundtrack first but then included in the Indecent proposal’s one. As a matter of fact Morris co-wrote also the lyrics of Marvellous & mine and Turn me on, while Devaney, as usual, played the keyboards, guitar and bass.The album starts with the title track So natural, a refined white-soul song, that will be the second single and it will reach quite good positions only in British and Italian charts; the video is nice and it’s shooted at night in a fountain.
Track n°2 is Never set me free the best thing of the album, so elegant, nice lyrics, the piano and rhythmic bases are very involving and enriched with strings, background of saxophone with a flugelhorne theme. I give you everything is song number 3, it’s Lisa’s classic ballad, slow, persuasive and suffused with atmosphere. The following track is Marvellous & mine another treat of the album, funky rhythm, mischievous lyrics ("baby you fill me up so") and beautiful vocal line. Track n°5 entitled Goodbye is a nice ballad about farewell like other songs of the album.
Track n°6 is Little bit of heaven, it’s the third single, it’s a pleasant disco song, but the video doesn’t quite hit the mark, it seems to be shooted in Rome but there are too many clichés and stereotypes. Sweet memories is a very soul track, the lyrics are about farewell, the only fault is that the bass guitar is not played in an accurate way. Track n°8 is She’s always there another beautiful ballad, the lyrics are very romantic because are about an abused woman who is faithful to her man anyway, the gospel choir is very touching. Track n°9 Too much love makin’ is a refined R&B/pop song with nice sections of sax and winds. The following track is Turn me on, a sexy-lyrics song but maybe is the less interesting of Lisa’s works. Be mine, the 11th track, is a pure R&B song, with a dream rhythmic base, romantic lyrics, in other words you never get tired of it. Track n°12 is the famous song In all the right places, the first single of the album, that reaches the Top 10 charts only in Italy and in the UK: the video is not so good, in fact there are many movie scenes and few Lisa’s images…the director could do much better exploiting her talent. The track is beautiful, Lisa sings perfectly, the keyboards and guitar arrangements are very peculiar for this reason the track seems to be disconnected from the others. Wish it could always be this way is the perfect end song, a great soul track that creates the right atmosphere for a romantic night.
All things considered, this album is a little bit underrated, the record label didn’t release it in the U.S.A. because not suitable for the American music market. Lisa, in fact, didn’t want to make any changes and so BMG didn’t publish it overseas. This provoked American fans’ disappointment; they had to buy only import record and had to be content only with the single In all the right places that, besides, entered the Billboard 100 chart. The album instead is very interesting, fresh and easy, recorded without too many rehearsals as Lisa likes it, all this makes everything spontaneous and natural. Even if the lyrics are very good they seem too repetitive, this is maybe due to Andy Morris absence.
The 2003 digipack edition of the album, included in The complete collection, contains the following bonus tracks: Dream away a duet with Babyface and The Pagemaster movie soundtrack, Gonna try it anyway previously available only for the Japanese music market and a remix of the title track So natural (no preservatives mix).
Singles extracted from album
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In all the right places
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So natural
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Little bit of heaven
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Marvellous & mine*
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*Only for Japan.
Videoclips
- In all the right places
- So natural
- Little bit of heaven
For more information on the history of videoclips visit the appropriate section.
