Natasha Bedingfield sails smoothly into dance pop

Natasha Bedingfield

“Pocketful of Sunshine” (Epic)

** 1/2

G-RATED pop queens have a hard time growing up. The transition to real live woman is usually signaled by a declaration of sexual power, even if, years after Janet went Nasty, Mariah became Honey, Christina got Stripped and Britney showed she was Toxic, all the stripteasing has become tedious. A “mature” pop star has to show her bad side, even if it’s as fake as her tan.

Give credit, then, to Natasha Bedingfield, who’s trying to make adult dance pop that’s not overly promiscuous, in the sexual or self-promotional sense. The 27-year-old Brit, who spent her teens on the Christian-pop circuit, has a nicely husky voice and a style that’s modest without being prudish. Her 2004 solo debut, “Unwritten,” yielded a few appealing hits, one of which became the theme for that televisual chronicle of tartiness, “The Hills.”

Bedingfield’s sophomore album, released abroad under the title “N.B.,” had some inevitable flailing, including “I Wanna Have Your Babies,” a bizarre portrait of woman-as-vessel that charted in the U.K. “Pocketful of Sunshine” salvages about half of “N.B.,” adding tracks helmed by Rodney Jerkins, J.R. Rotem and John Shanks to supersize an already star-producer-heavy album (in stores Tuesday).

There’s no “Babies” here, which is really too bad -- as awkward as the song is, it fleshes out Bedingfield’s vision better than Jerkins’ Mary J. Bligean “Angel” or Rotem’s Fergilicious “Piece of Your Heart.” (“Tricky Angel,” the most adventurous club track on “N.B.,” is also absent.)

Of the new material, the self-empowerment anthems “Freckles” and “Happy” show Bedingfield’s best side. Summery elements -- loopy guitar lines, sighing background vocals -- play against the grain of her voice to evoke unshmaltzy hopefulness. “Love Like This,” the single featuring Sean Kingston, would be unobjectionable if it didn’t make you want to put on a T-shirt that reads, “BAN THE VOCODER.”

Young Ms. Bedingfield’s also very good at nostalgia. “Backyard” is this year’s “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?”: a rapturous expression of desire for the simple boy-girl games of childhood (“Your cowboy hat, my tutu/you hide and seek, I catch you”) that simultaneously embraces and makes light of gender stereotypes. This is where the real Natasha Bedingfield seems to live: inside the question of what it means to be a nice, normal girl, even as she refuses to abandon that dream.

-- Ann Powers

Truckers taking

alternate routes

Drive-By Truckers

“Brighter Than Creation’s Dark” (New West)

*** 1/2

The eighth album from this protean band completes one of the widest mood swings in recent rock history. After specializing in thematically cohesive albums and a revitalized brand of Southern rock, the Athens, Ga.-based Truckers are now all over the place.

That figures, given the changes in the group’s core makeup. Rock-leaning guitarist Jason Isbell has gone solo, founding guitarist and pedal steel player John Neff is back, soul eminence Spooner Oldham plays piano and organ on the new album (in stores Tuesday), and bassist Shonna Tucker contributes her first songs.

The result is a sprawling, 75-minute immersion in the dynamic between Patterson Hood’s Neil Young/Tom Petty-influenced folk and rock and Steve Cooley’s mix of Rolling Stones, stone country and Band-flavored folk-rock.

It’s tied together by the Truckers’ customary focus on characters coping “in a world turned cold,” pushed to the edge by various forces -- internal compulsions, military orders, financial desperation. It’s not just good old boys this time. In “Goode’s Field Road,” a successful family man carefully plots his own demise.

The CD starts with a dream of heaven and ends in an encounter with John Ford, whose words of wisdom have been clearly heeded by the Truckers: “Tell them just enough to still leave them some mystery/A grasp of the ironic nature of history.” That’s a wrap.

-- Richard Cromelin

She’s hoggin’

the covers again

Cat Power

“Jukebox” (Matador)

***

Singer-songwriter Chan Marshall’s latest effort stays in the languid Memphis-soul bag of her acclaimed 2006 album “The Greatest,” which paid homage to soul legend Al Green and the ‘70s sound of Hi Records. But on “Jukebox” (due Tuesday), she mostly interprets other people’s songs, harking back to 2000’s “The Covers Record,” which featured her versions of tunes by artists such as the Stones and Smog. Like that release, this one has a Dylan song and a reworking of one of her own tracks, “Metal Heart” (from 1998’s “Moon Pix”).

Marshall may not obliterate Billie Holiday with her rendition of “Don’t Explain,” at once accusatory and forgiving, or surpass Joni Mitchell with her icy torch-song take on “Blue,” but she makes each selection hers, singing in a voice alternately smoky and chilled, rich and wispy. The pace stays slow to midtempo and might feel enervating to some, but the mood is by turns yearning, world-weary and hopeful. Subtle touches of jazz, blues, rock and country add to the dreamy, soulful elegance and make “Jukebox” feel like a private love letter to treasured tunes.

The lone new original, “Song to Bobby,” is a spare homage to Bob Dylan that rolls sweetly out of Marshall’s slow-grooving, blues-rock take on Dylan’s “I Believe in You.” The gospel petition “Lord, Help the Poor and Needy” is an ancient plea with a profoundly modern resonance, while “Lost Someone” begs mercy for one particular wandering soul. Both fade into the ether as though the prayer goes on all night.

-- Natalie Nichols

He’s got himself on a fast track

Jack Penate

“Matinee” (XL)

***

This young London-based crooner has a serious need for speed: On his infectious debut, Jack Penate sings and strums his crafty pop-soul gems with the manic energy of a streetwise punk. Imagine the Jam-era Paul Weller performing the tunes of the Style Council-era Paul Weller. Then add a double espresso or three.

In the U.K., Penate is part of a new breed of regular-chap pop acts that includes Jamie T and Kate Nash. So “Matinee” (in stores Tuesday) comes loaded with references to riding the subway and favorite sneakers. (Though the song describes an act of skyward expectoration, it’s probably safe to assume that Penate appreciates the dual meaning in the album opener “Spit at Stars.”)

“Matinee” works best at its most larger-than-life: “Have I Been a Fool” makes first-date anxiety sound like great fun, while “Torn on the Platform” paints a hypercolored portrait of the singer’s hometown. When Penate slows the tempo and gets reflective, as in “My Yvonne,” the album’s energy flags, making the music harder to distinguish from stuff by a host of NME-approved Britpop B-listers. As Penate would no doubt agree, though, that’s why fast-forward exists.

-- Mikael Wood

Quick Spins

North Mississippi Allstars

“Fernando” (Songs of the South Records)

Keeping the blues fresh in the digital age is no picnic. This young trio at least cooks up riffs authentically ragged, raw and Dixie-fried on its latest album (due Tuesday). Two of these players are the progeny of Muscle Shoals vet Jim Dickinson (who returns as producer) and it shows. Singer-guitarist Luther Dickinson fires up a solo of wild jazzbo on “Soldier,” and later wails a sad lament: “I’d love to be a hippie, but my hair won’t grow that long . . . “ The chooglin’ is breezier on “Mizzip,” another righteous salute to bona fide southern rock ‘n’ blues.

-- Steve Appleford

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Liam Finn

“I’ll Be Lightning” (Yep Roc)

The former front man for New Zealand pop band Betchdupa steps out with a solo album (due Tuesday) exploiting his Beck-like fondness for tracks often built on loops of found, muted and/or distorted sounds that amplify songs of fractured love or dashed hopes. But like his dad -- Crowded House popmeister Neil Finn -- Liam never veers too far from a killer melody or winsome harmony, which he delivers with the fetching voice that would seem to be ingrained in the Finn DNA.

-- Randy Lewis

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Dengue Fever

“Venus on Earth” (M80)

Los Angeles-based indie-rock band Dengue Fever has earned international acclaim for its stylish, genre-bending take on Cambodian pop. On its third album (in stores Tuesday), the band channels its passion for Khmer rock and ‘60s psych into an increasingly unique musical hybrid. “Seeing Hands” is sultry Cambodian-Middle Eastern noir, while “Tiger Phone Card,” is a retro-rock romance, and “Oceans of Venus” is spaghetti-surf fun. Sexy and eclectic, it’s world music for the cool kids.

-- Sarah Tomlinson

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Albums are rated on a scale of four stars (excellent) to one star (poor). They have been released except as indicated.