Piers

Completely thinking out loud here. I think the issue is...if we're talking about solo...they released the single best songs off their respective albums. For me, the only times the album's best track didn't get released was Geri with Love Never Loved Me...and Victoria with I Wish. But. I think opinions are too divisive on the two of them to send one of their songs forward. If I were to pick a solo track, it'd be Mel C's Stupid Game. To me, it screamed to be a single (even moreso than Burn) and is instantly likable on first listen. I also think it leaps out more than Burn. But. At this stage, I acknowledge it could be risky not to go with the group. With NGUOTGT off the table, the next most obvious single to me would be If You Wanna Have Some Fun. It had hit written all over it. But. Then. The outro is, like, an hour long. And there's also the thought...should we go with a five-piece song? In that sense, after NGUOTGT, I would think Move Over would be the next most recognizable album track. It was on a commercial anyone around in the 90s would have seen...and is also part of their Greatest Hits album. Do we hesitate because it's...y'know...a soft drink jingle? Anyway. That was a long way of saying, I don't know. But I'll still suggest: Stupid Game If You Wanna Have Some Fun Move Over

Y'know. I'll say...something...sorta, kinda positive about the Playstation game. I was a kid who was pretty interested in the details behind TV production. So. The section where you're selecting shots and controlling zooms during the performance...actually is a pretty basic form of directing a multi camera shoot. I ended up playing this game quite a bit to try and perfect the punching of shots and use of zooms to match the energy of the song. And as an adult...I did end up going into TV production. I'm...not exactly going to claim I owe my livelihood to a Spice Girls Playstation game. But. I will say it was the first time I was exposed to something resembling the process. So. That's worth something? But man, oh man did it annoy me that no matter how you arranged the songs...they always sounded a mess. Honestly, there was untapped potential in this game. If you had a little variety of beats to create basic remixes...and then had better options to control the choreography and TV production features...this honestly could have been a pretty educational little game for kids with interest in creating music, doing choreography, or doing live television.

I've always kinda gone to bat for this album. To my ears, Scream If You Wanna Go Faster, Calling, Circles Round the Moon, Love is the Only Light, Strength of a Woman, and I Was Made That Way are all excellent. Scream and Calling, I thought, were worthy successors to her Schizophonic singles. 'Gimme some, gimme some gasoline' always sounded like a classic pop hook to me. Calling...I still think is gorgeous. Don't Call Me Baby and Lovey Dovey Stuff are 'fine' album fillers. Shake Your Bootie Cutie, Feels Like Sex, and Heaven and Hell...are kinda...spectacularly weird. Which...y'know...I kinda appreciate. No other pop star of her stature would have recorded a song as defiantly strange as Heaven and Hell. Those songs are her. And she didn't care what was cool. In a time when A LOT of pop acts had interchangeable songs...you can't claim Geri didn't have major control over her music. It's Raining Men is kinda a case on its own. I tend to prefer her originals, but her cover of this song is honestly better than anyone would have reason to believe it would be. Her vocal ability is not in the same stratosphere as The Weather Girls. And yet...it works because her version is just pure adrenaline. She honestly does transform the song into something new. And I think the single campaign was excellent. The video and the performances have such an infectious energy about them. I think it was the most confident we ever saw Geri in her solo career. Anyway. This album doesn't seem as personal as Schizophonic, but I do think it's the best her voice ever sounded. I think her collaborators figured out the best ways to use her abilities. Passion and her unreleased work have more vocal range...but I like how unmistakable her voice still sounds during the Scream era. Last thought. I can't *believe* Robbie Williams wanted Geri to listen to Led Zeppelin for influence. Granted, I really like Scream If You Wanna Go Faster (which was inspired by that suggestion). But. Robbie HAD to be joking...

Thanks for sharing this story. Enjoyed reading that. So, is Geri's signing pretty good? Several Spanish speakers have told me her Spanish is a bit...interesting. Lol. So. I always wondered how her signing was. The performances always looked lovely, but I never knew if her motions were more for choreography sake or if she was genuinely communicating well. I was always glad she incorporated some signing into her Lift Me Up performances. I have to assume that signing on pop chart shows is pretty historically rare...and if Geri could get some young people interested in learning sign, it had to be a good thing. Side note. Does anyone else remember the person signing in one of the corners of the screen during the Spiceworld tour? That was a rather welcome addition, wasn't it? Because the Spiceworld tour was one of my very first concerts, I thought an interpreter was probably there for all concerts. But then...I don't believe I've seen an interpreter on screen for another concert ever since.

Sine From Above is the clear top on my list. First, because it's genuinely my favorite of the songs not released so far. Second, I actually think the presence of Elton John is more reason to release it. While our generation rightfully fights for representation for a lot of different people in music...ageism kinda remains this largely unaddressed thing. After 40...an artist *might* have a couple more years to have a hit....but then they're supposed to just fade away and disappear? Why? They've only lived half their life. I don't know the stats for the UK...but I'm fairly sure Cher remains the only person over 50 in America to manage a number one (in the past 50 years, anyway). Sine From Above has a chance to at least swipe back at ageism. Elton is 73. And if anyone deserves a genuine hit, it's someone who's been an LGBT icon for literally decades. Anyway. Other than Sine From Above...it's a bit harder to say. What I want to be a single usually leaps out at me on her albums. This time...the songs are largely on an even scale for me (not saying that's a bad thing...the songs are good). I can say this. I'm not positive it's the best single choice or not...but the chorus of Plastic Doll has been playing in my head for days.

She's had so many ho hum videos, I'm really glad she's been going the high-concept route for the last several. Looks like she's got a good collaborator in this director...someone who knows how to be creative with a limited budget. I like the idea behind this one, and it's got some cute bits...but I still think there's a bit of missed opportunity. Certainly they could have had some fun with Melanie/Sam fighting in the office...wreaking havoc in such a dull environment...papers flying everywhere as typically-bored workers are jolted from their routine to watch the chaos in stunned silence. When I watched the first time...I thought this was the direction they were headed. But no. They used the office set for Melanie/Sam...but didn't really go anywhere with it? If the video were telling a story, the first two rounds probably should have been within the realm of the arcade game...and then the surprise be that they've been thrust into the real world to do their final battle in the office. Right? Or maybe I'm just really overthinking this. Anyway. Song's fab. I'm into it.

Yeah. I know that's a thing. I have a number of friends who have done production work for live tours and residencies...and I'm aware there are more artists that lip-sync than people think. I'll preface this by saying I've never known someone to work on a Janet Jackson show. But I'm a big fan...and I've seen her twice. And I'm not sure she sang a note live either time. To my ears, she seemed to only be handling the spoken bits. Fabulous dancing and stage presence. Incredible setlist. But yeah. Not sure if she sings. And she's definitely not alone. But anyway. With the girls, I can tell a lot of the choruses are boosted with a track...and that certain solo bits are tracked (Emma's 'whooooo do you think are'). But it sounds to me like a lot of it's live. But. Like I said. Phone videos. If any screen footage gets leaked, I guess I'd know better.

I know most wish some of the pop tracks could have been included...and while I really like most of the leaked pop tracks, I'm not sure the two approaches could have gelled together. The girls' solo works managed to have many collaborators...without it seeming mismatched. But in the case of the Forever material, I flat-out don't know if I can imagine an album with Tell Me Why...alongside Pain Proof and the pop version of Right Back At Ya. To me...they just sound like two different groups. The leaked Eliot Kennedy songs have a higher energy...a different group sound. Darkchild's material to me sounds like it belongs to a group about ten years older. I think there's a reason Goodbye sounds so out of place on the album. Anyone think the pop material actually could have existed with Darkchild's stuff? I guess there's a few things they could have done. Like...start with the Darkchild stuff and let the album go progressively poppier (with the Jam n' Lewis material serving as a bridge) until it reached Goodbye? Perhaps a Sugar n' Spice double album with two different sounds? I'm not sure. I kinda think the Darkchild material was so different in sound that it forced them to pick a direction rather than include it all.

I definitely noticed it on the videos I've seen of If U Can't Dance. But to me, it seemed like she was plausibly singing her solos on, say, Say You'll Be There, Goodbye, and The Lady is a Vamp, for example. To me, she was hitting the notes, but it didn't sound so flawless that it would be a studio recording. But. I'll readily admit that I don't really know. I didn't get to catch one of the shows in person. I'm just basing this off phone video of varying quality. I hope she didn't lip-sync the entire tour. But if she did...it'd be more reason for her to feel inferior to the other three...

Yeah. The ad-libs are perfection on Holler. I think they're mostly perfection on Tell Me Why and Let Lead the Way (except for the Mel B ad-libs on the album version of the latter). But I think they're overdone on tracks 4-8...though I do like most of those songs overall. I think Darkchild was used to working with r'n'b acts who did a lot of ad-libbing...and it didn't come as naturally for the girls. I think Emma equips herself the best. But Victoria in particular sometimes sounds awkward to me...just repeating little phrases. If I had the ability to audio edit the album, I feel like I'd trim some ad-libs out here and there. The Darkchild 2000 stuff also becomes practically parody after a while for me. I thought it sounded cool on Holler...I think *some* of it is cute on Get Down With Me (hey Scary, ya ready?). But he overstays his welcome, and it was absurd when he showed up in Weekend Love. What's also odd is Rodney Jerkins did interviews talking about how he wanted to do songs with the group that would play well live. Yet...I've no clue how they would have done Get Down With Me or Wasting My Time live...as both are so heavy on Emma doing a solo...overlapped with Emma doing ad-libs...or a Mel C solo...overlapped with Mel C ad-libs.

Oh gosh. Can you imagine...that lovely chorus overlapped with a ton of unnecessary ad-libs...and Rodney Jerkins wistfully whispering "Darkchild 2000" over the track?

I think it's 'fine' in the same way I think One of These Girls is 'fine'. I don't have major opinions on either and wouldn't say much to defend them. Neither would make my top 30 Spice Girls tracks. I do like Voodoo a few light years better than Times Goes By, though.

Oxygen seems to be a major divider among fans (seems to come down to that water drop)...but I've always found it to be gorgeous. To me, it sounds like a Spice Girls classic. Another track that deserved far better. I like it even better Let Love Lead the Way.

I find that Jam n' Lewis often did super long album songs. It's true of a lot of Janet Jackson's big hits. Even Mel B's Feels So Good is overlong on the album. That one got trimmed up pretty perfectly for the radio edit...and I think the same could easily have been done for If You Wanna Have Some Fun. I love this one. It's easily my next favorite on the album after Holler and Goodbye.

So. Between their three studio albums AND their Greatest Hits, Time Goes by is the only group song I don't like. Didn't like it on first listen. It's never grown on me. The opening keyboard sounds like some church youth group talent show. I never think the song sounds especially genuine (something the group does so effortlessly in all their other ballads). There are some nice enough vocals here and there...but a lot of the ad-libs sound awkward to me...and I think Mel C's vocals starting at about 3:40 are the least flattering she sounds on literally any Spice Girls track. It was always interesting to me that Mel C loved this one so much. Even when she was completely over being in the group, she still wanted this thing to be a single...and later admitted to not liking the incomparably superior If You Wanna Have Some Fun.

I basically like the album version of Right Back At Ya...but the Earls Court version and the leaked demo sound like a far more natural fit to me. On the album, the revisions to the way the verses are sung (mainly Victoria's) have always just sounded off to me. I'm also irrationally irked by Emma's ad-libs being the exact same the first two times we hear the full chorus. On the flip side...I find the leaked demo to be perfection. I think Darkchild's better off handling production duties for songs he also wrote...so it's in his style from the get-go.

I don't have any special insight...but this does sound pretty right to me. I've wondered if we didn't get releasable recordings of the Return of the Spice Girls tour because of Victoria and Geri's lack of performing confidence...and then didn't get the 2019 tour recorded because of just Geri. The girls always try to play off the lack of recordings as a "oh, we just didn't get around to it!" But. Realistically. Performing at Wembley Stadium...I'm sure it crossed a few minds to record that big a moment. In terms of Geri's spark...I think it kinda came and went with the most recent tour. She seemed to be having a blast in every performance of Never Give Up on the Good Times I saw. On the flip side, she seemed to be sleepily going through the motions on early performances in the show like Spice Up Your Life and Who Do You Think You Are. It's only accentuated by the fact the other three girls are in such fine form and giving their performances 100%. To be fair, I've seen that sleepy thing with Geri on occasion throughout her career. It's in her Ride It performance at GAY. It's in her Scream if You Wanna Go Faster USO performance in Oman. My guess is she thinks she's playing a role...making things dramatic with the slow movements...though it actually comes off as though she's disinterested. It wouldn't *seem* to be an unfixable problem. Just...don't do that slow motion thing? To her credit, I thought she sounded good vocally on every recording of the 2019 tour I heard.

I think this is probably true. Mels B and C had such different ways they spoke about their solo music at the time Forever was released. In late 2000, I remember Mel C saying she was more proud of Northern Star than Forever...which is a completely understandable perspective. But. When you're talking about the work of a lot of people...that a record label spent a lot of money to produce...it probably isn't the best thing to blurt out unprovoked when the group album has JUST been released. On the flip side, Mel B readily admitted Forever was better than Hot in 2000. I noticed Mel C brought up the This Time era being disrupted by the Return of the Spice Girls tour in one of her recent Q and As. I think she said something about her European record label being upset about it or something. I mean. The album wasn't doing so hot even before the tour announcement was made. I guess one could say her solo work got overshadowed by the tour. But you'd think the increased profile could have possibly helped her? I'm not sure the Carolyna and This Time singles were destined to set the charts on fire no matter when they were released...

I've wondered before if how much the girls wrote of their solo work...is a good indicator of how much they contributed to the group writing. If I'm not mistaken, Geri co-wrote everything of her own except her few covers. Mel C and Emma have co-written the vast majority of their original material outside the covers (and Mel C, of course, would have written the most material overall). If I'm remembering correctly, Victoria co-wrote all but three or four songs off her debut. And it's been a long time since I saw the credits for her second album sessions...but I'm pretty sure she co-wrote quite a lot of her pop material...including My Love Is For Real, Generate the Flow, Should Have Known Better, I'd Give It All Away, and Be With You. Don't quote me on that. But I'm pretty sure that's what I saw. Meanwhile, I don't think she co-wrote any of the Damon Dash stuff. Anyway. To be totally fair to Mel B, she clearly had a moody collaborator in Teddy Riley and...while I don't know all that went on there...I don't know if them writing together was on the table. And what was she supposed to do? Turn down Teddy Riley songs? The guy wrote and produced some of the biggest hits of the 90s...including Michael Jackson classics. Also. Uh. With the exception of Today, Mel had a writing credit on the rest of LA State of Mind. Maybe not the best example...

I think this might be the first time I've seen someone compliment Feel Me Now. I might be too harsh on that one. Even though I just ranked it low, when I'm talking about songs that could have been handed to literally any r'n'b singer...I'm more referring to the three Teddy Riley tracks and Hell No. I think the main little bit "and I could have had anyone...but you're the one..." is actually really pretty. Even though it reminds me a lot of slow jam Janet, I do think Jam n' Lewis made a genuine attempt to give Mel songs that played to her vocal abilities. It's not a Teddy Riley situation...where he insulted her singing ability after handing her songs that weren't right for her...and then just had background singers do a lot of heavy lifting (the session singers are a bit too present for me on the two Sisqo tracks too). Plus...she probably needed to have a song referencing her legendary...libido. Lol. If I'm remembering this correctly, only Feels So Good, Tell Me, Lullaby, and Feel Me Now actually have Mel's writing credits on them. I'm sure an album with her better collaborators...with all tracks co-written with her...would have made a much different, better album. Y'know. If she could be coaxed into sitting down and concentrating for that long...

That may be true. It's rough, though...because they were the top selling act in America in 1997...and their first two albums sold well all through 1998 and even into 1999. It's hard to even imagine this sort of drop in modern terms. Could we even picture, say, Billie Eilish (who just had a big year) having her next album arrive at #39 on the chart? And even that's not a totally accurate comparison as Eilish doesn't have the level of cultural impact the Spices did in the 90s... Those Emma/Victoria appearances were a somewhat bizarre thing too. They had very few appearances they could make in such a short time...so they end up on The Daily Show? An American political talk show? It...wasn't exactly the crowd that was going to buy a Spice Girls album. It didn't exactly help that Victoria told host Jon Stewart he wasn't funny...and the conversation devolved into a debate as to what is and isn't comedy. Anyway. I think we could all write a book on all the ways Forever went sideways. But. One more thing I wanted to bring up... Did anyone else find the album booklet with lyrics super weird? It was, like...stapled together...but you didn't flip through it like a little book. You had to turn it to where it was...up and down. That's how my copy was, anyway. I haven't gone through it in ages...but I seem to remember Emma and Victoria looking...sunburned...or something...

The album's all over the place...and I love that about it. Critics are always calling for cohesion for an album. But. Honestly, Northern Star seems to encapsulate who Mel was at that time. Aren't we all inspired by many types of music? Why limit yourself when expressing who you are? Few thoughts. Despite the...surprising...new look and sound, I've always liked Goin Down, even from first listen. I don't really think it was the best song to launch the album, though. If she wanted to go rock, I think both Go! and Gaga are more obviously radio friendly (though I realize the latter had already appeared on a big movie soundtrack). I get she probably wanted to arrive in the boldest way possible. But...like I said about Mel B's debut, I'm not sure a lot of the girls' attempts to be edgy paid off. I've always found the song Northern Star to be gorgeous. It was my favorite song from this era on first listen...though the remix of I Turn To You is so epic, I can't really choose between the two now. I don't hate it...but If That Were Me is my clear least favorite song on the album...which made it even odder for me when it got picked as a single. (though I get it was for a good cause) Even the b-sides and unreleased material from this era is really, really good. In fact, I think Follow Me, Something's Gonna Happen, and Independence Day were probably too good to be left off the album. She opened her earliest shows with Something's Gonna Happen...so she had to know it was quite good. I like those three tracks better than probably all but three or four songs on Reason.

Anyway. Ranking the album, I'd probably go... 1. I Want You Back - Tell Me - Feels So Good (yeah, I'm giving them a three-way tie...so what...) 4. Step Inside 5. Hotter 6. Lullaby 7. Pack Your Shit 8. I Believe 9. Hell No 10. Feel Me Now 11. ABC123 Few thoughts. I think Hotter was the most obvious single after Feels So Good...but while I think it would chart better than Lullaby, I don't think it'd be the album savior some believe it would have been. I don't think it's as good as Tell Me or Feels So Good, and it'd need a punchier single mix. Sisqo fell out with Mel over her changing his songs' productions. So. Would be curious to hear his vision for the song... Never really cared for most of Janet Jackson's meandering seductive songs...and that's exactly what Feel Me Now is to me. I Believe in itself is an okay song...but it drags for waaay too long and is strangely redundant. It should have a minute to 90 seconds shaved off. Out of all the songs on the girls' debut albums, I think ABC123 is the most generic, most anonymous. Generic is a problem for about half of Hot. Mel's personality was so distinct and bold, she shouldn't have been saddled with several songs that could have been handed to literally any random r'n'b singer. In a certain way, I do think Hot represents Mel honestly. There's an effortless brilliance to some tracks...but they're weighed down with subpar material that came from rushed sessions and an artist who didn't have the patience to perfect the work. "Oh, hurry up. Release it, then."

I've wondered how much Pack Your Shit ended up hurting the album...by getting it slapped with a Parental Advisory sticker. To me...that may have hurt it even more than the bikini cover. Granted, unleashing it weeks before Forever was the #1 problem. But at the same time...Mel's fanbase was still fairly young. It was only a year earlier people were clutching their pearls over Mel C saying 'whore' and 'bitch' on Goin Down. Mel B's like...hold my beer. Granted, Mel was a grown woman. But I think you kind of have to understand your fanbase. I'm not sure being especially edgy ever paid off in a major way for any of the girls. It's not that I'm offended by the song. But I do find its language to be a bit jarring in the context of the album. Nothing before it on Hot is in the same stratosphere. I remember Mel claiming she was considering it for a single release in America, though. Dear...

To be totally honest, though, Virgin does share in *some* of the blame. If I remember correctly, the Holler video debuted in America about two weeks AFTER the album had already crashed and burned on the chart. The album's poor showing gave MTV/VH1/radio no incentive to even give the song/video a fighting chance. How many people at Virgin had to be asleep behind the wheel to let THAT happen? Though. Of course. It is more the girls' fault. They spent all this money, time, and resources developing an album targeted at the American market...and then just dumped it in the US...with no video proceeding it...without a single performance...without so much as a single appearance from the full group even speaking about it. Holler wasn't actually even released as a physical single in America...an odd move considering Spice Up Your Life, Too Much, Stop, and Goodbye managed to climb into the top 20 because of physical single sales. Anyway. It's all 20 years ago now. But. Totally honest. I'm hard pressed to think of another act on their level in the 20 years since who dropped the ball *this much* on an album release.