Thanks for reviewing it, Nina! Actually, my assessment of the album would be very similar to yours. And I'm glad to see you like Oxygen. After If You Wanna Have Some Fun, it's my next favorite non-single album track on Forever. I get that people get irked by the dripping noise. But. I dunno. It doesn't bother me, and I see it as a cute quirk? I hate to see Oxygen ever get lumped in with Time Goes By. To my ears, Oxygen sounds like the girls are being genuine...and Time Goes By does not.

 

The only area my opinion would differ at all would just be in the album's two raps. I actually really don't like Mel B's rap in the album version of Right Back At Ya. I think it's clunky. Bizarrely, I really enjoy the same rap (which sounds like the exact same vocal take) on the leaked pop version of the song. Go figure. The production just makes that much difference to me. The tone of the rap's fun and spunky on the pop one...and a bit...spiteful?...on Darkchild's take.

 

And...there's this. Brace yourself. I'm going to defend the Weekend Love rap. Yes. The shock. The horror. Shower me with your rage. But. What can I say? I like it. I remember thinking the song was a little humdrum on first listen...until that rap came along and blindsided me. I loved it. It's a burst of energy...a jolt of a surprise...in an album that doesn't have a lot of surprises after the novelty of Darkchild producing the Spice Girls wears off after the first two tracks. It's like three of the girls are trying to get rid of this guy politely...but he's not getting it...so...they have to deploy Mel B to finish the job. I think it's in character. It's weird. It's funny. I could do without the two Darkchild references in a song that doesn't really need them. But. Darkchild's gonna Darkchild. Not much we can do about that.

 

Thanks for your feedback, as for 'Oxygen' its nice to see it get some love on here, as it seems to get very mixed feedback on this forum. As for 'Weekend Love' I can't believe that it was ever considered for a single release. Original plans were for it being the fifth single & rumour has it the girls expressed interest in having it remixed to feature a rapper.

 

Glad that didn't happen as it would have been a disaster like the album campaign was. If they went with more singles I'd say - "If You Wanna Have Some Fun" - Given a radio edit, a fun, sexy music video set in a nightclub with killer dance choreo. "Tell Me Why" - Again given a slight radio edit/remix, a killer music video with a futuristic type setting. Then to cap off the era "Oxygen", given that its the 5th single given a remix to polish up the production, a simple yet effective music video (think Eternal 'Oh Baby I" type setting) with the girls in white outfits and light make-up with Mel B with her short natural hair & showing another side to her.

The album had only one other singlw, ans that was If You Wanna. Everything else was trash.

 

MIND BOGGLING they planned on releasing Wrekend Love as a singleAa

As for 'Weekend Love' I can't believe that it was ever considered for a single release. Original plans were for it being the fifth single & rumour has it the girls expressed interest in having it remixed to feature a rapper.

 

FIFTH single?!

FIFTH single?!

 

Yes fifth I suppose 'Goodbye' was classed as the first single despite being released 2 years before the album came out. But 'Holler/Let Love Lead The Way' is the lead single. 'Tell Me Why' was lined up as one of 2 options for the 2nd or 3rd overall single. More likely that 'TMW' would have been released next given that it had promo cd's released to radio stations, a promo 12" vinyl record and 15 official remixes/edits.

 

'If You Wanna Have Some Fun' was the other option & probably would have been released after 'Tell Me Why' . It had an official compilation music video and a promo CD with an edit of the song to radio stations to promote it.

 

'Weekend Love' was also in consideration at some point, likely to be released after the other 2. A promo CD was released in Taiwan and UK. Mel B stated in an interview that she was interested in having the song remixed and thought about calling some rapper friends, Lil Kim, Trina or Foxy Brown to invite to create a remix with the girls. The remix would have been a completely new song and would have been released as the 5th overall single from 'Forever'. This information has never been confirmed and there's no sources whatsoever, so it could may well be just a rumour.

 

So the Forever era could have looked like this (Not including 'Goodbye' as that was just tacked on) =

 

'Holler/Let Love Lead The Way'

'Tell Me Why'

'If You Wanna Have Some Fun'

'Weekend Love'

 

If You Wanna was DEFINITELY gonna be the second single. It had been swnt to rsdio stations and tv.

Thanks for the review Nina, I think you were very fair in your comments about each track, specially the middle of the album. Even if I love Wasting My Time and think it should be higher. But you are right, and specially on the point of it coming after Get Down With Me.

 

It is always wild to me how both Weekend Love and Time Goes By, objectively the two worst songs on the album, were not only placed back to back but also both were considered, in some form, as potential singles :blink:

 

Goodbye, Holler, If You Wanna Have Some Fun and Tell Me Why are all top tier Spice songs. That should have been the singles run :teresa:

If You Wanna was DEFINITELY gonna be the second single. It had been swnt to rsdio stations and tv.

 

Pretty sure it was 'Tell Me Why' which they tried to test the waters with radio stations around the end of the year, before the campaign ended up being completely ditched not long into 2001...

IYWTHSF was on tv, with a video, and had promo cds. It's much better than 4/10 Tell Me Why, which rsdio wouldn't have touched with a barge pole.

IYWTHSF was on tv, with a video, and had promo cds. It's much better than 4/10 Tell Me Why, which rsdio wouldn't have touched with a barge pole.

 

What's a barge pole?

 

(asking for a friend) :teresa:

 

Pretty sure it was 'Tell Me Why' which they tried to test the waters with radio stations around the end of the year, before the campaign ended up being completely ditched not long into 2001...

 

Correct; that's also why these remix packs were circulated to DJs:

 

 

1 Tell Me Why (Radio Edit)3:42

2 Tell Me Why (Thunderpuss Edit)3:39

3 Tell Me Why (Thunderpuss Club Mix)10:55

4 Tell Me Why (Jonathan Peters Edit) 3:22

5 Tell Me Why (Jonathan Peters Club Mix)

 

 

1 Tell Me Why (Thunderpuss Club Anthem) 10:55

2 Tell Me Why (Thunderpuss Mixshow) 7:31

3 Tell Me Why (Thunderpuss Tribe-A-Pella) 8:02

4 Tell Me Why (ThunderDUB) 8:46

5 Tell Me Why (Thunderpuss Radio) 3:39

6 Tell Me Why (Thunderpuss Radio (Vox Up)) 3:39

7 Tell Me Why (TV Track) 3:39

8 Tell Me Why (Live Performance Track) 3:39

9 Tell Me Why (Radio Instrumental) 3:39

10 Tell Me Why (12" Instrumental) 10:55

 

 

 

The one in bold could have saved this as a single.

 

Tell Me Why was the next single for sure. If You Wanna Have Some Fun was also considered but the video that was on their website was only a promo thing not an actual single.

IYWTHSF was on tv, with a video, and had promo cds. It's much better than 4/10 Tell Me Why, which rsdio wouldn't have touched with a barge pole.

 

I love how you always make up these facts in your own head and try to perpetuate them as being the truth.

 

I think by the end of the year, that campaign was so dead in the water that nothing could have salvaged it so it's completely immaterial what was likely to be chosen as the next single.

That's a great review Nina West! Always good to see some positive takes on the album. :wub:

 

I'll forever be bemused that Get Down with Me is one of the tracks on the album that gets the hardest time in the fanbase. It's definitely a highlight for me, a very funky and breezy sounding track. Glad you like it!

 

I've felt mixed about Weekend Love over the years. Sometimes I'm totally not in the mood for it, but other times I find it to be fun. I appreciate Piers take on the rap! It's certainly unexpected and has a Spicy attitude to it. It's brash, but it's certainly memorable! :lol:

 

That's really interesting! Wonder why they were so against LLLTW? I can imagine it sounding lush in December and actually always wondered why they didn't save it for an intended Christmas release. If they paired it with a festive Christmas song they could have tried for another Xmas #1 (obviously we know they were not interested anymore, but surely in advanced plans there must have been some ideas for a longer promo strategy).

It would have been interesting to see how Let Love Lead the Way performed if it had been released separately after Holler rather than being tacked onto it as a Double A! It really seems that Holler did a lot of the heavy lifting for the single's success, considering it did well on radio airplay and I'm going to assume it had higher tv airplay than LLLTW too. From memory the only time that the Spice Girls really pulled focus onto LLLTW was deciding to perform that on the National Lottery instead of Holler.

I never even heard LLLTW once during the single's chart cycle!

It shoulda been a stand-alone third single, with a Christmas song.

 

Follow that up with the Walk of Life Quadruple Double A Side with Billie Piper, and finish off with their last ever single, If You Wanna.

 

They would probably only get top 10s from all of them, except Walk of Life Quadruple Double A Side with Billie Piper, but it would have been a dignified decline and final era. The most important thing would be to release the album Q1, to not look mortally wounded, and to not lose radio support.

I never even heard LLLTW once during the single's chart cycle!

 

!!!

 

What about on tv?

I never even heard LLLTW once during the single's chart cycle!

 

Here in Canada, the Spice Girls always had great support from radio: airplay was good to them. Holler got a lot of airtime here, but in all honesty, LLLTW was played occasionally for 1 month, and then never again. It was just Holler from then on out. It was pretty obvious that Forever was axed.

 

Just my personal opinion: (brace yourself) I don't really care for LLLTW. :o So, I wasn't entirely disappointed that LLLTW wasn't getting airplay. Some of the lyrics are so cringe for me, for example:

 

Why is there joy?/

Why is there pain?/

Why is there sunshine and the rain?

 

Seriously, the vocals from the girls are great, but what the f*&% kind of existentialist bullshit lyrics are those??

 

How could these lyrics be from the same group that created Goodbye as their prior ballad!? :cry:

 

Don't get me wrong: I'd still play LLLTW before Time Goes By. But I really think Oxygen (with some type of radio edit/mix) would have been better to release than LLLTW. It's just polluted with Darkchild beats that sound like leftovers that Debelah Morgan even said "nope!" to. :teresa:

 

 

 

 

I bought a Promo CD of Let Love Lead the Way on eBay, it came today and this one has a different sticker to the one I mentioned a few days ago. This one says:

 

"Let Love Lead the Way" is undoubtedly the Spice Girls at their best.* This beautiful ballad was originally scheduled as a Christmas single but ended up being coupled with the number one airplay hit and chart topping "Holler". Co written with the Jerkins Bros., "Let Love..." is taken from the third album from the girls entitled "Forever"

 

* Lol

 

Another reference to this song being tied in with Christmas. I don't think I'd ever read before that there was an intention to release Let Love Lead the Way later on by itself, but maybe I forgot about that.

I can totally see it being an intention to do so and try for the Christmas #1 again it follows their usual formula, but obviously plans changed closer to the time! I think they all knew it was going to be a really short promo schedule by that point and it was more, well might as well chuck it out and try make some money back on it.

I have some invomjng thoughts!!

 

Mote on this later x