The ’90s were a good time for Natalie Imbruglia. Her cover of “Torn” was a huge hit back then, and she racked up awards and modeling contracts. These days, Imbruglia is a mother and she’s worked through a five-year writer’s block to come out with a new album Firebird. Like the proverbial phoenix, Imbruglia has arisen from the ashes–in her case, being dropped from her record label and going through a divorce–to reemerge with an album she co-produced with MyRiot while in lockdown.

The production is clean and sleek and has a ’90s kind of feel to it. Firebird starts with “Build It Better,” an uptempo inspirational number just like you’d find at the beginning of a Mariah Carey or Celine Dion album back in the day. “When things break down, you gotta build it better,” Imbruglia confidently sings. “Build It Better” is the peppiest song on the record; the rest of Firebird is decidedly more subdued. Self-empowerment anthem “Nothing Missing” was written by KT Tunstall, and her influence is definitely present in the guitar strumming style as well as the lyrics, such as, “You’re looking for something broken/ You’re looking for someone in fear/ But don’t come looking here/ Because you won’t find it anymore.”

Imbruglia has said that “On My Way”—cowritten with Eg White (who also cowrote her 2005 hit “Shiver” as well as hits for Adele and Dua Lipa—is about “those mornings you wake up and feel invincible.” Indeed, it sounds just like the kind of song that would play behind a montage of a movie protagonist’s morning routine and getting ready to take on the world. “This thrill could be real /On my way!” she sings.

The curious thing about Firebird’s origin story is that initially (in 2018), Imbruglia went to Nashville to collaborate with other songwriters, but ended up discarding all but two of the songs written there. She said that those sessions leaned too closely toward R&B, which she didn’t like but that it ultimately helped her find her songwriting direction. Many of the songs on Firebird sound very close to contemporary country (not R&B) and could have even benefited from leaning into that a bit more. “When You Love Too Much” has a hook tonally similar to Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me” and would have sounded lovely with some pedal steel or a fiddle.

“Maybe It’s Great,” the much-hyped collaboration with The Strokes’ Albert Hammond, Jr. is… not great. Anyone hoping for a song that sounds like Imbruglia fronting the Strokes is going to be extremely disappointed. The track sounds more like a Jane Fonda workout video soundtrack. As an ’80s-sounding song in a sea of ’90s vibe tracks, it sticks out like a sore thumb and would have been better off as a standalone single. Ultimately, it doesn’t fit on this album, especially in the middle of the tracklist.

The second half of the album is mostly piano ballads. “Invisible Things” is a gentle, touching tribute to someone’s love: “I can’t see it but I need it/ I can’t touch it but I feel it/ You make me believe in invisible things,” she sings.

“Dive to the Deep,” “River” and “Firebird” are all slow dirges about overcoming obstacles. For an album that started out so upbeat, it seems to run out of steam by the end. All in all, though, it’s a nice taste of ’90s nostalgia by Natalie Imbruglia.

Follow Rachel Alm at Twitter.com/thouzenfold.