Urban Love Songs

Trip-hopper Natalie Walker nails her landings.

by M.J. Fine

What do you do when your first album is exactly what you wanted? If you're Natalie Walker, you try to broaden your horizons, maybe temper your synth-driven melancholia with poppier material.

Trouble is, she couldn't find the words.

"I kind of had some serious writer's block," she says.

Michael T. Regan

After leaving trip-hop trio Daughter Darling, Walker built her own fan base through a crafty combination of social networking, frequent gigs and plum soundtrack placements. Songs from her solo debut, 2006's Urban Angel, popped up on Entourage and Grey's Anatomy, exposing her to a wide audience.

"People maybe think that I'm this electronic-music-obsessed songstress, but I'm not at all," says the 26-year-old Indianapolis native, who moved to Philly in 2003. "My heart is with simplicity and big songs that build."

The sentiments on her new record, With You (Dorado), are as simple as it gets. From the soft-rock title track, to the glossy pop of "Now or Never," to the sad "Monarch," love is all that matters.

The broader musical palette, courtesy of Brooklyn-based production duo Stuhr, allowed Walker to recycle lyrics. (That's one way to deal with writer's block.) "Pink Neon" and "Over & Under" evoke two different situations with one simple, imperfect rhyme: "Pink neon lights/ Glow in the skyline/ It's our night/ Let's play till daylight/ Do this right/ 'Cause it's the last time."

When Walker first heard the track that would become "Pink Neon," visions of high heels danced in her head. "I knew I wanted it to be about going out, but I'm not like a big goer-outer." Though her idea of a good time is more dive bar than nightclub, her gossamer voice was made for the dancefloor, and she knows it.

If "Pink Neon" is the sound of late Saturday night, "Over & Under" takes place even later Saturday night, long after the club's closed. Singing about anticipation and regret comes naturally to Walker, but that's not what she's about.

"I'm one of those people who refuses to have drama in my life," she says. "Like, I don't have time for it. It's unnecessary. It's not healthy." To that end, she tours with a low-maintenance crew.

"I love working with guys," she says of her four-piece band, who'll join her for a CD release show at Johnny Brenda's next week. "They're just so easy to work with. Just give them a beer and some free food and they're happy."

Now that she's lived through the sophomore slump, Walker's ready to branch out even further. She's been writing new songs; they're more indie-rock, she says, and inspired by the state of the world, rather than the state of her heart. "I feel like I'm kind of in love," she says. "I haven't felt that way in a really long time about something that I've written. I've always been quite proud of what I put out, but I've never felt like this uncontrollable tingle."

So what if she's already done exactly what she wanted? There's always more to do.

Natalie Walker plays Wed., Oct. 29, 9 p.m., $10, with As Human, Johnny Brenda's, 1201 N. Frankford Ave., 215-739-9684, johnnybrendas.com.