Natalie Imbruglia - Torn

I've never gotten tired of this song.

Openly Gay ballet dancer Jeremy Sheffield played the disinterested boyfriend to perfection.

The music video was instantly iconic. The hunky everyman guy, her daggy clothes, the moving apartment... it didn't hurt that she was (is?) staggeringly beautiful and had a great rapport with the camera.

I miss this time in music where record labels would put money behind songs like this (adult-oriented, confessional songwriting, live instrumentation, melancholy lyrics). Imbruglia is no Ella Fitzgerald, but she has a very solid pop voice, she even won the Masked Singer UK last year. Delivers the big moments in 'Torn' with aplomb and honesty. I think her catalogue is quite underrated, she got buried a bit by those Lilith Fair girls, Alanis, Sarah McLachlan, Fiona Apple, etc.

Haha. I love to pose this question. Quick! What would you do if you walked in your place and saw Natalie Imbruglia lying curled up in a ball, naked on the floor?

She is gorgeous...I LOVE the hair!

[quote] "Haha. I love to pose this question. Quick! What would you do if you walked in your place and saw Natalie Imbruglia lying curled up in a ball, naked on the floor?"

Unfortunately, she was none of those things in the video.

Is she a lez?

I had that exact haircut in 2000. It reminds me of a time when the fashion was very Asian/dragon based for some reason.

Great song. Great video. She's gorgeous. He's perfection. And none of it seems dated.

It's the adult contemporary "All I Want for Christmas".

Awful.

[quote]I had that exact haircut in 2000.

Who didn't?

[quote] Unfortunately, she was none of those things in the video.

r6 Irrelevant. You could at least cover her with a blanket. Just answer the question. Quick!

"Torn" is without doubt a late-90s defining song. But I wish "Wishing I Was There" could get more recognition. Personally, I think it's as great as "Torn".

I think her first album still holds up. And R7 I don't know but i wonder if her ex husband is gay or bi 🤔

R14, he's been open about his eating disorder, alcoholism and mental breakdown. I'd also like to know if he's gay or bi.

NI's own music doesn't do much for me, but it's strange she didn't have a bigger career.

R15 I never paid much attention to Daniel. I just remember the divorce. And then he released this song and i was shocked he decided to do this kind of music.

I bet she specifically requested a gay guy.

I live in the same city as Daniel, and occasionally see him around bumming cigarettes off of people on the street (though not for a while). He usually looks rough and grubby. Funnily enough I've had dealings with the other two Silverchair members and they are lovely and warm. Daniel is extremely talented and frankly the life of the group, but seems a bit of a self indulgent diva as well. It always seemed to me like he wanted to be Kurt Cobain (definitely styled himself as Kurt Cobain with an Eddie Vedder voice - Courtney Love dragged him for it back in the day). And despite him exaggerating all his issues (drugs, eating, insomnia, etc.) in over-the-top operatic solo music and film, I think the frustration is that he knows that the reality is he's just another smelly Newy bogan at heart.

They were a power couple at the time and both looked beautiful together, but IMO she dodged a bullet. I did like this song she wrote about waiting for him to get back home while he was away on tour - Daniel actually produced it:

You should have created a WHET Natalie Imbruglia thread as a companion piece to this one. Because where in the actual fuck is she even?

Natalie made a cameo for the season finale of Neighbours with Holly Valance.

Natalie with fellow Neighbors star Kylie.

This was from Popbitch a few years back, it was widely assumed to be Natalie.

Which pint-sized soap star-turned-singer, currently on the comeback trail, has been supplementing her income by sleeping with rich Arab men for £1m a pop?

The actor in the video cruised me in my local supermarket about 15 years ago.

It makes me anxious when grown adults infantalize themselves in their mannerisms and sartorial choices. I'm like, what are you covering up?

Damn R22 if you could get 1 million pounds a pop, why even attempt a comeback? Just stay on your back.

r24 They're just stuck in Peter Pan mode, they're not doing it consciously.

History of the song Torn is interesting.

Apparently, the writers are forever grateful to Natalie for turning it into a great success. They have made a fortune from the royalties.

Cannot stand this song or most music from this time. Bunch of whiny bitches singing their bullshit. Alanis Morissette was insufferably bad.

perfect little time capsule, thanks , OP. I never understood what she was doing, lying naked on the floor, I once asked a chick, and she got mad at me. Whatever. The bald roadie is hot. Wasn't the song, that she claimed to have written herself, in fact, a cover ?

I like how the video is all about artifice and dismantling it, like what happens in a failed relationship, and feels it mirrored the song brilliantly right down to the “boyfriend” being Gay, layer upon layer wrapped around each other.

The song is iconic, but it's also a minute too long. The bridge is super weak and the outro is not needed at all.

R28 I would take any of these 90s "whiny bitch" female singers over Taylor Swift.

Like what the hell is this cheesy ass shit? It's embarrassing. Natalie sings better. Any person named Natalie sings better.

Ugh, this reminds me to add this tune to the songs I hate thread.....

Thanks, R33

r23 lucky you. I would have lovingly stroked an eggplant if he was near me in the produce aisle!

R31 I think the outdo is brilliant…

^ outro…

Onee day I woke up convinced I had written this song. It was on as I was falling asleep and when I woke up I started humming it, convinced it had come to me in a dream.

Fuck she's had a shit-ton of surgery though, ay?

She's just gone a touch too far, like Kylie. If they just left it and let things settle...

It's those cheek fillers that will get ya.

Here's Limey (the Scot) on Natalie Imbruglia, lol

[quote] Here's Limey (the Scot) on Natalie Imbruglia, lol

r41 Sorry. I'm American. I speak English. I couldn't understand a word that idiot said.

Brief DL Icon Anna Storelli even did a cover of this song.

"m cold and I am shamed. Lying naked on the floor." Thankfully no pillows were harmed in the video.

I'm always amazed at how many people didn't/don't know this was a cover. A lot of people prefer Ednaswap's version, but Natalie's was obviously way more popular.

[quote] "I'm cold and I am shamed. Lying naked on the floor."

r43 These women are just nasty. Put some goddamn clothes on.

r42, you should probably be embarrassed by that. I'm not Scottish and it's not that fucking difficult, lol

I've always said "Torn" is the perfect pop song. On a side note I also very much enjoy NI's latest video.

r46 Okay, to be fair, I listened to it again. And I still don't understand it. 🤣

r48 Haha!

R24 and R41, if they're not the same person, have called out the EXACT quality I, too, found insufferable about the video. Limmy even talks about the way she's got her sleeves pulled down partway over her hands in the vid (which, isn't this already a trope on DL)?

Glad Limmy hates this too. So do I. Hated it at the time (and fuck, it was always on) and still don't like it now.

Sorry, to be more accurate I mean R24 and the vid at R41 call out the same quality in the music video as one they dislike. And I, too, dislike this quality.

R41 thanks that was hilarious, I laughed my head off, this guy is a hoot

The 95 version before Natalie

The original version

And another one before Natalie!

4th time was a charm with Natalie.

R32 Natalie Merchant was not whiney. And Taylor Swift? I don't listen to music for teen girls.

[quote] And Taylor Swift? I don't listen to music for teen girls. ^ ^ ^ This

Natalie Merchant and Natalie Imbruglia are from different planets.

Someone upthread linked a video of Imbruglia's where the song's opening lines were something like:

"Put your hand into my pockets, flick your eyes back in your sockets."

Hardly inspired. She has nothing to say. She's just a different version of a basic pop singer, one who thinks she's an artist. It says so much that her most successful song was a cover. How long will she keep being shunted for comebacks, 25+ years after lightning first struck?

Did she ever get to be a SNL musical guest?

No one has posted this yet...

Im surprised at myself but I LOVED Ednaswap's version of Torn ! Not as much as Natalies,but its certainly good.

R60 lmao forgot about this gem 🤣

I find it weird that she was married to Daniel Johns back in the aughts. They seem like very different people, but of course that’s my superficial take.

Daniel Johns is bisexual I think, as mentioned earlier in the thread.

Pretty song, her record label didn’t correct when reviewers assumed that she’d written it (as she had every other song on the album). But what made it a hit was her stunning beauty in the video. She was just another pretty girl when she was on Neighbours but then she went for an androgynous look for the video and knocked it out of the park.

Slightly interesting factoid - she has a sister called Laura who is an indie singer/songwriter and who looks exactly like a dyke version of Natalie, which is what she is.

“Smoke” is a very haunting but beautiful tune also.

one of the hottest women ever in her heydey and was my first major crush from childhood alongside mandy moore

I miss the 1990s!

^^^ I just finished this book, it was a nice nostalgic romp.

I loathed the 90s

I wonder how her famous ex will end up. It doesn't look hopeful for him, and like the poster upthread, I'm staggered he's changed his music style so drastically. I do feel sorry for him being dragged by Courtney, though as he was just a teenager when Silverchair started out. Of course he was going to copy Cobain and Vedder.

Do Scottish people have an indigenous language? Celtic or something?

I'm too lazy to look it up. I have some Scottish ancestors but don't know.

[Quote] I do feel sorry for him being dragged by Courtney, though as he was just a teenager when Silverchair started out. Of course he was going to copy Cobain and Vedder.

Courtney's heard of Silverchair?

[quote] Do Scottish people have an indigenous language? Celtic or something?

r71 Interesting question and I did a little research on it. Yes, there's an indigenous Celtic language known as Gaelic. And there's Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic dialects. Scottish Gaelic is only spoken now in the far north Scottish Highlands.

The Scottish people in the Lowlands, the majority, are actually descended from German settlers, not the Celts. They speak a Scottish version of English.

Yeah, most the Scots we know and in the U.S. are descended from the Germanic Lowland Scots, not the Celtic Highland Scots. Highland & Lowland. Two very different people with different heritage and languages.

And I'm already torn. 🤣

^ ^ ^ [quote]German settlers

I meant "Germanic settlers" like the Anglo-Saxon, not Celtic.

He was hot AF, a real man.