# White Lilies Island

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 materials. 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. She co-wrote 64 songs potentially intended for the album. The album is named after the location of Imbruglia's home in Windsor.
Musically, White Lilies Island is a rock album, with element of pop, and acoustic sounds. The album was notable for being the first to include copy protection software on compact disc pressing, but later removed due to surrounding technical faults that resulted to consumer outcry. Upon release, White Lilies Island received polarized reviews, while some critics praised the album for its dark and distinctive tone compared to her predecessor. Commercially, the album charted within top five in Australia, top twenty in the United Kingdom, and top forty in the United States. White Lilies Island has sold one million copies worldwide.

## Background, songwriting and production

In May 1998, during a backstage interview at MTV Movie Award where she performed, Imbruglia told journalists she was writing new songs during her time off. In June 1998, Imbruglia also informed Washington Post that she began to sketch songs for her sophomore album, and would collaborate again with Phil Thornalley, producer of "Torn" and former Eurythmics Dave Stewart. However, she also indicated that she would let things happen naturally and wouldn't rush the process.
In October 1999, after receiving an Outstanding Achievement Award on stage at 13th ARIA Music Awards, Imbruglia was asked by the presenter Molly Meldrum about the progress of her second album production, to whom she replied: “...it's coming along fine”.
In early 2000, when Imbruglia was being interviewed by Chris Evans on TFI Friday, she said that she had been hunting for her second album, and that she was writing intensively. However, she also stated that she needed to have a balanced life.
Imbruglia chose to name her album White Lilies Island as she wanted to associate the album with the location where most of the songwriting took place. For Imbruglia, the island could be meant as bliss and paradise but also a total isolation which contributed to her complex feelings during the process of making the album. Imbruglia emphasized that it was essential for her to be a major contributor for every song on the album, highlighting the pressure she had felt after the unexpected worldwide success of her debut single, "Torn" which had been a cover. She also stated that she'd have liked to write songs in her bedroom during afternoon and that being single at the time helped her finish the album the way she wanted. For all the songs on the album, Imbruglia highlighted "Butterflies" as the first song she wrote which helped her determine the overall sound and mood for the album, as well as "That Day" which she favored due to its distinctive style, she also praised RCA Records for being brave to release "That Day" as the first single internationally even though it's not a pop radio-friendly song and a commercial risk.

## Singles

* That Day was released on 29 October 2001 as the lead single of the album internationally. It peaked at number 10 on ARIA Single Chart and number 11 on the UK Singles Chart.
* Wrong Impression was released on 29 January 2002 as the second single of the album internationally, and the lead single in North America. It peaked at number 7 on the U.S. Billboard Adult Top 40, and number 10 in the United Kingdom and New Zealand.
* Beauty on the Fire was released on 22 July 2002 as the third and last single of the album. It peaked at number 26 on the UK Singles Chart.

## Copy protection

White Lilies Island is notable for being the first album to implement copy protection on compact disc. To prevent consumers from illicitly copying the album, a 24.5 megabyte data file is included on the disc that interferes with the methods by which personal computers read the twelve audio tracks. Instead of reading outwards from the centre, PC CD-ROM drives usually start reading inwards from the outermost end of the data track. The copy protection scheme takes advantage of this difference by offering them a separate data session and appearing as a CD-ROM instead of an Audio CD. The data section contains a second, highly compressed representation of the same music content, which allows playback on PCs, but with a greatly reduced audio quality compared to the actual CDDA data (at a data rate of 80 kbit/s rather than the standard 1.4 Mbit/s). Additionally, the copy protection software prevents some Macintosh computers and all Philips CD recorders from reading the disc and causes other Macs to avoid playing track one; this latter fault is also present when trying to play the disc on a PlayStation 2 video game console. No message exists on the disc's packaging that it is copy protected. The various technical faults caused by the CD's copy protection software resulted in significant public backlash. Among others, a spokesman from Philips stated that "any changes that put a disc outside the CD standard result in a disc that should no longer be described or marketed as a CD" in reference to White Lilies Island, 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

Professional ratings :
| Aggregate scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 54/100 |
| Review scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| Blender | |
| Entertainment Weekly | B− |
| Mojo | |
| Q | |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Uncut | |
| The Village Voice | (unfavorable) |
| Yahoo! Music UK | 8/10 |
The album met with mixed reviews. At Metacritic it received a score of 54 out of 100. AllMusic gave the album a rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars saying: "Imbruglia has made 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." Blender gave a rating of 2 out of five stars, commenting: "White Lilies Island skips from one song to the next without leaving any great impression or displaying a single sentiment Jessica Simpson would find distressing. If, however, she was trying to remake Jagged Little Pill, it's all gone horribly wrong." Entertainment Weekly gave a positive review and said: "The disc continues in the same vein of agreeable pop-radio fodder as 'Torn', with an all-new group of distraught romantics and connection seekers singing creamy choruses." Rolling Stone gave the album a negative review and said it's "a great brother of her debut." Yahoo! Music UK gave the album a rating of 8 out of ten stars and said: "She's certainly on the way to achieving her goal. She chips in a hefty wedge of the lyric sheet to the album in the shape of confessional lovesick outpourings that, despite lapses, bind the gutsy album cohesively giving it sophistication, direction and genuine feeling."

## Commercial performance

In Australia the album debuted at number 3 and was certified Gold, despite enjoying only a small resurgence in sales with subsequent singles. The album debuted at number 15 on the UK Albums Chart with 21,000 in sales before dropping out of the top 75 in its fourth week. It re-entered the top 30 with the release of the second single "Wrong Impression" and sold eventually nearly 200,000 copies in the UK overall. In the US the album debuted at number 35 with 35,000 in sales and dropped out of the Top 200 after seven weeks, eventually selling 215,000 overall. Worldwide, White Lilies Island has sold around a million copies.

## Track listing

All tracks are written by Natalie Imbruglia and Gary Clark, except where noted

## Credits

* Natalie Imbruglia – vocals
* Ian Tilley – bass guitar
* John Dunne – guitar, programming
* Maz – drums
* David Munday – electric guitar, mellotron, flute
* Rej Rheinallt Ap Gwynedd – bass guitar
* Marc Fox – percussion
* Paul Statham – guitar
* Ian Stanley – keyboards
* Geoff Dugmore – drums
* Phil Thornalley – keyboards, bass guitar, acoustic guitar
* Guy Pratt – bass guitar
* Neil Taylor – guitar
* Gary Clark – keyboards, guitar, backing vocals
* Chuck Sabo – drums
* Ged Grimes – bass guitar
* Tessa Niles – backing vocals
* Viveen Wray – backing vocals
* Hannah Robinson – backing vocals

## Certifications

| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
| Australia (ARIA) | Gold | 35,000$^^$ |
| United Kingdom (BPI) | Gold | 100,000$^^$ |
| United States | — | 171,000 |
| Summaries |||
| Worldwide | — | 1,000,000 |
| $^^$ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |||