White Lilies Island is the second studio album by Australian singer-songwriter Natalie Imbruglia. It was released by RCA Records on 5 November 2001 in most international territories and on 5 March 2002 in the United States. For this album, Imbruglia collaborated with songwriter, Gary Clark, with whom she co-wrote majority of the album material. Other collaborators include Phil Thornalley, who was a major contributor of her previous album, as well as Ian Stanley, Matt Wilder and Patrick Leonard. Attempting to take more control of her creative direction, Imbruglia admitted that she suffered from writer's block, perfectionism and isolation during the recording process. The album is named after the location of Imbruglia's home in Windsor. Upon release, White Lilies Island received polarized reviews, while some critics praised the album for its dark and distinctive tone compared to her predecessor. At the 13th ARIA Music Awards, she told presenter Molly Meldrum that the album was "coming along fine." and in early 2000, when Imbruglia was being interviewed by Chris Evans on TFI Friday, Imbruglia said she had been writing intensively for the album while maintaining a balanced life. Further commenting on the album's writing process, Imbruglia told Billboard that she preferred to invest her time in developing as a songwriter rather than chasing hit songs. She revealed that she had written 64 new songs, only to discard them all and start over.
Singles
"That Day," produced by Ian Stanley, was released on 29 October 2001 as the lead single of the album internationally. Imbruglia commended RCA Records for their decision to release it as the lead single from White Lilies Island internationally, despite its unconventional style and potential commercial risk. "Wrong Impression" was released on 29 January 2002 as the second single of the album internationally, and the lead single in North America. while Julian Midgeley, a spokesman for the Campaign for Digital Rights, stated that "all they are doing is annoying a lot of people who cannot do with it what they want to do, which is just listen to it." The outcry ultimately forced Bertelsmann Music Group to reissue the album on CD with the software removed and offer free replacement discs to affected buyers. A hotline was set up where buyers could order replacement discs starting 19 November 2001.
Critical reception
The album met with mixed reviews. At Metacritic it received a score of 54 out of 100. AllMusic editor MacKenzie Wilson called the album a "brilliant pop record — contemporary, yet timeless. White Lilies Island would have suffered without Natalie Imbruglia's perfectionism, and it would have lost sight of the elegance it so perfectly exudes." Writing for PopMatters, Adrien Begrand concluded: "Hopefully White Lilies Islands more inspired moments are a foreshadowing of some more good material to come, something to elevate her above all the clichés she seems so dependent on right now. It's obvious she’s talented enough; let's just hope it doesn’t take her so long next time."
Commercial performance
White Lilies Island experienced a varied commercial performance worldwide. In Australia, it debuted at number three on the ARIA Albums Chart and was certified Gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA),
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! scope="row"| European Top 100 Albums (Music & Media)
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Year-end charts
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!scope="col"|Chart (2002)
!scope="col"|Position
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!scope="row"|Canadian Alternative Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)
|align=center|148
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!scope="row"|UK Albums (OCC)
|align=center|153
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