Sideout

Even most of the Spice 25 numbers after an entire year are abysmal.

Enemy, Drown, Weak, Burn and the b-side Cruel Intentions are highlights

I'm not surprised if the girls are not a high priority at Universal. They are a legacy act that hasn't released an album in 22 years. Not to mention it seems like the girls themselves don't want certain demos and outtakes released. Why would Universal spend much money or time on half baked anniversary editions?

I could see them releasing a 25th anniversary vinyl of Goodbye with Woman on it. That way Woman gets officially released without having to celebrate Forever.

They shouldn't have released a SW 25 if there's nothing of value in the archives. Hopefully the underperformance of this release will force them to put more effort into Forever 25. Though I suspect there won't be an anniversary edition of that album for multiple reasons.

So this party mix is just previously released remixes strung together. Yeah, this sums up these anniversary editions. Strung together cash grabs.

Step To Me should have been on the greatest hits album in 2007. Praising the girls and their team for making the song widely available 15 years later is a joke. I brought up George Michael's reissue of Older because it went to #2 without multiple vinyl covers and a CD release. Fans bought it because it included everything from that era in beautiful packaging. Spice 25 would have charted much lower without its multiple vinyl covers. Spice 25 could have been much, much bigger.

You're not being critical enough. You're grasping for nice things to say about SW 25. Praising the girls and their team for uploading a HQ scan of the SW album cover to Spotify is laughable. George Michael's reissue of Older went to #2 in the UK. That's without multiple vinyl covers and a CD release.

Imagine if the Prince or Whitney Houston estate shortened live tracks on Spotify to appeal to gen z. Talk about having no musical integrity. What a joke.

Releasing a live version of a song, but cutting the intro is idiotic. Live versions of songs appeal to hard core fans. Trying to have a live version of a song appeal to the masses by shortening it is absurd.

Love this post. Put a huge smile on my face.

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.

OMG. How awful. Hearing Willa Ford's studio version of the track makes things worse. I feel so bad for Victoria. Having a Willa Ford reject as your lead single is embarrassing. Not to mention both versions of the track sound identical. Virgin Records did Victoria so dirty. #JusticeForVB

The girls are kind of in a pickle. A large bulk of their unreleased material is from Forever. An album that is not celebrated by most fans and the general public. Not to mention the girls themselves don't seem to be fond of it. If the Forever pop songs are decent, it seems like a waste to release these songs on an anniversary edition of Forever. Releasing the best of these pop songs on a rarities album or anthology box set would be more ideal. The unreleased tracks from Forever don't even sound like outtakes from that album.

The official radio edit of IYWHSF is much better than the album version. Hopefully they include it on Forever 25.

We'll never know if the girls and Virgin Records made the right decision to discard the pop songs until we hear them. Something tells me the girls don't want us to know that answer.

I co-sign everything you said. #JusticeForOxygen

I have a soft spot for Oxygen. It's underrated in my book. Lyrically, it's the best ballad from the Forever sessions. I do like Weekend Love and LLLTW, but lyrically those two songs are missing Geri's songwriting touch. LLLTW in particular sounds somewhat juvenile.

You can separate the Forever songs into two camps. 1999 Songs Holler Let Love Lead The Way Weekend Love If You Wanna Have Some Fun Oxygen Right Back At Ya (Pop Version) 2000 Songs Tell Me Why Get Down With Me Time Goes By Wasting My Time Right Back At Ya (Darkchild Version) The 1999 songs are superior. I find it hard to believe the 5 pop songs they did with Biff are worse than the 2000 songs.

The one demo fans did want (Say You'll Be There with the rap) they didn't release. Go figure.

Of course there's a demo of all the SW tracks. There's no way the girls recorded the songs in one vocal take. The girls probably didn't want to release any of them because their rough vocals sound like dog poop.

Still can't believe they didn't release the Say You'll Be There demo with the rap. Just shows you the girls have no clue what the fans want. Giving us the demo versions of Last Time Lover and WDYTYA that don't offer fans anything different was a choice.

Wow! This really puts things into perspective. SW 25 deserves to flop.

I can't imagine how annoyed Melanie is by being asked about 25 year old unreleased tracks. Why do I find it hard to believe Melanie remembers What You Want sounds like at all.

George Michael's reissue of Older is #2 on the UK album chart this week. No new material with only one cover. It really makes you think how much lower Spice 25 would have charted with only one vinyl cover. Doesn't look like SW 25 will go top 10.