Maybe and Free Me, both moments :wub: and I do like the other two singles too. A strong and cohesive album! Emma was serving visuals, and musically she was in a different and exciting lane compared to the majority of other UK pop artists of the time :w00t:

 

This is so true! It was very exciting to be a Bunton fan back then. Free Me was great but Maybe kind of blew everyone away back then! With more radio support it would have been quite the massive hit :teresa:

 

I always loved Crickets and I'll Be There too actually. They showed a varied pop act and quite a versatile one!

 

I hate that clearly no one involved in the Free Me era gives a damn about its online presence. <_< We've discussed it every now and then for years and still in the year 2023 there's no officially uploaded videos, it's not available to stream or buy in most countries. No one thinking it might be a good idea to repress it on vinyl! Sad that her most warmly received album gets such little love.

 

Next year will be the album's 20th anniversary... if nobody gives it any love then, it'll be a shame!! We need more than a social media post from Emma about it...

 

This is the biggest saddness as a Bunton fan... she clearly doesn't see it as a priority but it would do wonders for the album!

Almost the perfect singles run but she ruined it with the last single! I kind of get it as an album track it's different has a Latin feel to it etc, but when she had BREATHING there to make it a truly perfect singles run... I can see why she went with it though, a different flavour to the album (but it didn't need to be shown).

Naaa, Crickets was great! She should have definitely followed it with Breathing, for sure!

 

After Free Me and I'll Be There she needed an upbeat track to ballance it out with Maybe. Crickets did that!

No she needed another commercial public friendly radio hit to keep the album selling! There wasn’t going to be a follow up to Crickets when it flipped and the album did nothing off the back of it. Breathing was the most radio friendly song on the album easily.

I almost feel like the album campaign had run its natural course by the time 'Crickets' came around, I don't think #15 for a 4th single was that bad and most album campaigns back then very rarely lasted beyond a 4th. She chose an extremely busy week to release that too.

 

'Breathing' is a really good song but probably could've been beefed up a bit if they were to consider it for a single.

Had to listen to Breathing on YouTube, it’s quite nice.

 

This album really needs to come to Spotify worldwide.

In regards to post-album singles, and how much they helped the album out in the charts - Crickets was actually one of the better outcomes! 'Free Me' was #53 in the albums chart in the week that 'Crickets' was #15, and then the album climbed to #43 a week later. Only 'Northern Star', 'Schizophonic' and 'Scream If You Wanna Go Faster' experienced better boosts than that, out of the solo albums. It was slightly better than 'A Girl Like Me' too, which was at #47 when 'Take My Breath Away' reached #5.

 

I'll post more about this in a charts thread (in an attempt to not make the 'Free Me' topic about how the other girls did) :kink:

Oh shut up Jay! Don’t bloody make my point have not point!! :lol: :nono:

"Crickets" was a nice fourth single I think; I don't see anything else on the album really being a hit if it wasn't beefed up. At least it's a fairly unique entry in her discography and brought some attention.

You’re all wrong just shut up the lot of you before I lock the thread!!! :arrr: :arrr: :arrr:

Oh shut up Jay! Don’t bloody make my point have not point!! :lol: :nono:

 

Bet this'll be used a lot :arrr: :teresa:

 

Bet this'll be used a lot :arrr: :teresa:

 

 

Haaaaa that is amazing!! I want one! :wub: Make me a shut up Matthew! :lol:

Haaaaa that is amazing!! I want one! :wub: Make me a shut up Matthew! :lol:

You can have TWO:

 

 

 

:lol:

Yaaaaay!! 😍😍😍

 

Being told to shut up by posh is like one of THE key moments in life!!

In regards to post-album singles, and how much they helped the album out in the charts - Crickets was actually one of the better outcomes! 'Free Me' was #53 in the albums chart in the week that 'Crickets' was #15, and then the album climbed to #43 a week later. Only 'Northern Star', 'Schizophonic' and 'Scream If You Wanna Go Faster' experienced better boosts than that, out of the solo albums. It was slightly better than 'A Girl Like Me' too, which was at #47 when 'Take My Breath Away' reached #5.

 

See?? It did well for the album and it only stopped cos she set her sights in mainland Europe. She could have totally done another single followed by a tour in the UK and a few European summer festivals too to continue with the album promo.. This was Emma's best era and she had a lot of good will thrown at her during this time, it is a shame she didn't tour as this was definitely the best moment for her to do that!

 

I wonder why she didn't... She did some live mini concerts during the A Girl Like Me era, and Free Me seemed PRIMED for a small live audience (she even said that a lot of the album had been recorded live in the studio rather than the usual individually laying out of instruments + vocals).

 

A small tour of UK theatres + summer festivals would have been awesome!

Crickets is better than Amazing for me!

Crickets is better than Amazing for me!

 

Agree :cheer:

'Free Me' :wub: I think I have the single to that.

20 years of Free Me single today.

20 years of Free Me single today.

 

What a single and album :wub:

 

I almost feel it was a little bit ahead of its time to fully appreciated how good it was and still is.