A lot of interesting opinions here about Forever and anything surrounding its creation. This album remains as divisive as the four members were with each other when they recorded and promoted it (and I use the term loosely) at the time.

While I like Forever, I figure the Stannard/Rowe tracks would very likely be stronger than a lot of the Darkchild material...just because the girls would have been a higher priority for Stannard/Rowe. The Darkchild team's 1999/2000 work schedule was insane. The call must have been like..."Hey, Rodney, I know you just got done producing for Destiny's Child and Jennifer Lopez...and you're in the middle of working with Britney Spears, Whitney Houston, George Michael, the Backstreet Boys, and Toni Braxton...and Michael Jackson is wanting to record 300 new tracks with you or whatever...buuut...can you also executive produce a new album by a group that's showing signs they're about to split up?"

 

I don't know all the behind-the-scenes details of this...but the girls lost their US radio support with the Spiceworld singles. I kinda wondered if Virgin Records was pushing for the Darkchild team to play to what was (at one time) their biggest sales market. I always thought the girls were a bit over enamored with working with US producers. All that said...I do think Holler and If You Wanna Have Some Fun are as strong as the group's best material...and the rest of the album (bar the unconvincing Time Goes By) is a perfectly good pop album.

 

Last thought. If the thought was that the Elliot Kennedy Right Back At Ya sounded too young for the project...I wish it was Jam n' Lewis who'd been asked to rework the track, rather than Darkchild. I think Jam n' Lewis could have kept the song's spark...while also giving a bit of maturity. Likewise, I think they would have been ideal to do a new mix on Give You What You Want...and knowing how good they were with rock (Janet Jackson's Black Cat), they also would have done awesome with Pain Proof.

I can totally imagine how this sounds and I want it to exist! :cry:

 

Darkchild made Right Back at Ya sound quite… clinical? It doesn’t feel joyful like the pop version does. In a sense they don’t even sound convinced about what they’re singing about in the Darkchild version. It’s weird how different production can completely alter the mood of a song that retains the same lyrics.

 

I do enjoy Forever on the whole but a few of the tracks do give a “we had this at the bottom of a drawer and nobody else wanted it” vibe, even though the songs were co-written by the girls. It was the sound of them following the pack rather than creating something that truly had their stamp on it. However I do think that they nailed it with Holler and it’s no wonder that it was chosen to be the first single.

I can totally imagine how this sounds and I want it to exist! :cry:

 

I do enjoy Forever on the whole but a few of the tracks do give a “we had this at the bottom of a drawer and nobody else wanted it” vibe, even though the songs were co-written by the girls. It was the sound of them following the pack rather than creating something that truly had their stamp on it. However I do think that they nailed it with Holler and it’s no wonder that it was chosen to be the first single.

 

 

This is kind of my thoughts on Forever too. I enjoy the album but it is just missing something as a whole package.

The order of the tracklist for Forever doesn't help it at all. It becomes ballad heavy at the end and Get down with me and Wasting my time sound very sonically similar to me so become 1 long song. Right back at ya feels like the obvious opener too.

 

Right back at ya

Weekend love

LLLTW

Holler

Get down with me

Oxygen

IYWHSF

Tell me why

Time goes by

Wasting my time

Goodbye

 

It always feels like IYWHSF is conpletely lost in a sea of ballads 2nd half of the album.

I'll give that order a listen at some point :music:

The order of the tracklist for Forever doesn't help it at all. It becomes ballad heavy at the end and Get down with me and Wasting my time sound very sonically similar to me so become 1 long song. Right back at ya feels like the obvious opener too.

 

Right back at ya

Weekend love

LLLTW

Holler

Get down with me

Oxygen

IYWHSF

Tell me why

Time goes by

Wasting my time

Goodbye

 

It always feels like IYWHSF is conpletely lost in a sea of ballads 2nd half of the album.

 

 

I am going to listen to this version tomorrow.

While I like Forever, I figure the Stannard/Rowe tracks would very likely be stronger than a lot of the Darkchild material...just because the girls would have been a higher priority for Stannard/Rowe. The Darkchild team's 1999/2000 work schedule was insane. The call must have been like..."Hey, Rodney, I know you just got done producing for Destiny's Child and Jennifer Lopez...and you're in the middle of working with Britney Spears, Whitney Houston, George Michael, the Backstreet Boys, and Toni Braxton...and Michael Jackson is wanting to record 300 new tracks with you or whatever...buuut...can you also executive produce a new album by a group that's showing signs they're about to split up?"

This is an excellent point. Virgin Records and the girls were naive to think they would get top tier songs from Darkchild in 2000. If Virgin Records wanted the girls to release a R&B album, I'm sure Kennedy and Biff could have changed some of their production to accommodate that.

If you split Forever in terms of uptempo and ballads (and consider Weekend love a ballad or at least not umtempo) then LLLTW and IYWHSF are the only 2 songs making it from being split completely in half by tempo.

 

It makes it harder for songs to shine to me if surrounded by similar tempo songs as you will inevitably compare them with each other. Holler/Tell me why, Get down with me/Wasting my time, Oxygen/Goodbye are all sonic partners to me and all next to each other on the tracklist so inevitably most people pick one over the other.

Holler is the song that every year appears on my Spotify most listening songs, maybe I’m the only one but is my fave Spice Girls song ever. Love the beat, lyrics, sexiness, every girl had her moment to shine vocally and the video 😍😍😍🔥🔥🔥

Holler is the song that every year appears on my Spotify most listening songs, maybe I’m the only one but is my fave Spice Girls song ever. Love the beat, lyrics, sexiness, every girl had her moment to shine vocally and the video 😍😍😍🔥🔥🔥

 

It's a gorgeous song, always hard to pick between it, Viva Forever and Say You'll Be There as their best to be honest, but it often comes up on top :wub:

It makes it harder for songs to shine to me if surrounded by similar tempo songs as you will inevitably compare them with each other. Holler/Tell me why, Get down with me/Wasting my time, Oxygen/Goodbye are all sonic partners to me and all next to each other on the tracklist so inevitably most people pick one over the other.

 

I feel like a lot of R&B-leaning pop albums of that era had a "ballad"/slow-jam section on the albums for whatever reason. Janet Jackson was notorious for this at the time.

Giving Oxygen a listen for the first time in a while, it really is a beautiful song and Emma sounds like an actual angel. If that drip noise wasn't there I'd be tempted to say it is a 9.5 song.

Today is 22 years since the release date of their final studio album: Forever!

Today is 22 years since the release date of their final studio album: Forever!

 

It turned out to be Never.. Again. :rofl:

Wow this tweet is a bit cheeky!!

 

@1589205598112882688

 

It turned out to be Never.. Again. :rofl:

:lol: :cry:

I wonder who wrote that? I wonder who manages their Instagram account in general actually.

I did laugh!!! Love Forever :wub:

Wow this tweet is a bit cheeky!!

 

@1589205598112882688

:lol: :cry:

 

I saw that this morning too. And that black heart emoji: cherry on top!

 

Their team knows what's up. They know what we're looking for. :teresa:

Edited November 6, 20222 yr by Equinox8

I proper laughed when I saw that earlier was like omg what a troll lol!!

Edited November 6, 20222 yr by Scary Spiceboy

@1593608897595670528