I've liked Anastacia since I first heard the track "I'm Outta Love" and instantly fell in love with it. Since then, I have liked most of the singles she has released, the funky "Paid My Dues" being my favourite. This song was the first release from her second album, "Freak of Nature" and was my reason for buying the cd in the first place.

The album then takes a momentary nosedive with the bland mid-tempo track "Overdue Goodbye" - the tune sounds a bit country & western and Anastacia's voice is a tad whiny and nasal on it and the overall effect of it just is not a good one. Luckily, this is redeemed by next few songs, which are all exceptionally good and in a variety of different styles. This kicks off with "You'll Never Be Alone", a rare "good" ballad, which begins really simply and builds up to an almost gospel-like chorus, really showing off the strength and uniqueness of her voice. The next song is a complete contrast to this, the bouncy hit "One Day in Your Life", reminiscent of "I'm Outta Love" and "I Was Made for Loving You" - this features upbeat and strong lyrics about recovering from a break-up, which is particularly meaningful for my own situation. I like it particularly because it is basically a message to her ex saying okay, we've broken up, but you're the one who is going to regret the decision you've made - "One day in your life, love will remind you, how could you leave it all behind?/One day in your life's gonna find you/with the tears you let me cry." I can definitely identify with this song, and I'm sure a lot of others feel the same way!

Then unfortunately the greatness is almost over. Out of the final four full tracks on the album, only one "Don't Stop (Doin' It)", another upbeat "vintage Anastacia" track, is worth a listen. There are two remaining ballads, "Secrets", which is a bit boring apart from the underlying drum programming, unusually placed in such a slow song; and the insipid "I Dreamed You", piano led with sickeningly sweet lyrics. The biggest disappointment of all, however, is "Don't Cha Wanna", which features a Stevie Wonder sample and SHOULD be good, but never really gets off the ground in my opinion, the music far better than the singing or the lyrics.

But it's hard to know what to recommend in terms of this album. SHOULD you buy it, when nearly half of the songs aren't really up to much? Well, my personal opinion has always been that if you like three or more single releases FROM an album and like them enough to want to OWN them, it is actually better value to purchase the cd, rather than the individual singles. Also, the good half of the album is EXTREMELY good, and covers a range of different types of music, so you're sure to find something that suits you, but there are no real surprises in it.