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Friday, November 24, 2006
Ah, whatever you think of those girls formerly known as Spice, they have had a lasting impact on pop culture and at least 3 of them have crafted semi successful yet different to each other sounding pop tunes. In my mind, Harri Gelliwell was the one who most closely mirrored the Spice Girls sound. In fact her 3 albums were much more of an extension of the first two Spice albums - more so in fact than the patchy Forever cd. Let's face it, none of Geri's offerings are perfect slices of pop, but they were always full of fun and sparkle and to me, that's important in the pop world. And after one single from Scream If You Wanna Go Faster didn't make number one, the label panicked and future singles were managed with extreme caution. This meant a lot of gems were left on the shelf instead of gracing the singles chart. What about Strength Of A Woman? Don't Call Me Baby? Surrender? The lovely So I Give Up On Love and Loving Me Back To Life? And in her back catalogue, Geri had 2 songs that she could've re-recorded to make a stunning greatest hits - Heaven & Hell and Feel The Fear. So ladies and gentlemen, here is what a Geri greatest hits should have looked like:
- Look At Me
- Mi Chico Latino
- Lift Me Up
- Bag It Up
- It's Raining Men
- Scream If You Wanna Go Faster
- Calling
- Strength Of A Woman
- Circles Round The Moon
- Ride It
- Desire
- Surrender Your Groove
- I Give Up On Love
- BONUS: Live and Let Die (mp3)
- BONUS: 100% Pure Love (mp3)
- BONUS: Heaven & Hell (mp3)
- BONUS: Feel The Fear
Melanie Chisolm took a different approach to Geri - she moved onto a sound that was as far away from Spice as possible. She pitched herself as the Robbie of the group and to a certain extent it worked. All three of her albums had great energetic pop songs on, helped by thrusting guitars, singalong choruses and a good vocal from Sporty herself. Unfortunately, when the singles stopped performing (and Mel due to a leg injury) the label lost confidence, and like Geri, many great tracks were left on the albums that would have made excellent singles choices. Mel knew how to have a good time and "rawk" out as much as she knew to reign it in and give us tender ballads. One colossal mistake - that dreadful If That Were Me song: "i cannot live without my phone, yet you do not even have a home"? Shudder... Should've been greatest hits below...
- When You're Gone
- Going Down
- Northern Star
- Never Be The Same Again (the first song Dazpants and I smooched to!)
- I Turn To You
- If That Were Me
- Independence Day (mp3)
- Here It Comes Again
- On The Horizon
- Positively Somewhere
- Yeah Yeah Yeah (mp3)
- Melt
- Next Best Superstar
- Better Alone
- Last Night On Earth (mp3)
- Little Piece Of Me
Now it's a little too early to speculate on an Emma Bunton greatest hits, but after a shaky first album, Emma seems to have adopted that sixties pop kitten style that (while not generating huge styles) worked so well for Cathy Dennis on her seminal Am I That Kinda Girl album. Free Me may well be my joint fave solo Spice album (with Scream...) and was filled with joyous little ditties swathed in strings, beats, percussion and harmony. Just lovely. Her dreadful cover of Downtown aside, her new disc Life In Mono seems to be a natural extension of this. I have already discussed the deliriously lovely title track here, yet there are other tracks that take you back to those heady bygone days of 60s pop - all done in a timeless manner that could make this album another treasure. Check out the playful, languid So Mischevious, the perky I'm Not Crying Over Yesterdays and swooning All I Need To Know. Will Emma break the curse of the third spice girl album flop? Seems that way...
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COMPARISON MP3: Geri Halliwell - Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps
COMPARISON MP3: Mari Wilson - Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps
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