Piers

Thanks for sharing this. Watched the whole thing. It starts on an overly negative note by initially dismissing Victoria's unreleased music...but as the video progressed, I think it's a lot more fair about what was good and bad in that material. What I've never understood with V's second album era is why there was such a hard-lined divide between the pop album material and the Damon Dash material. Why did she and her team believe they could only go in one direction or the other? Frankly, the fanbase itself often confuses which songs are from which sessions. I mean, yeah, Be With You is clearly straight from the pop album and It's That Simple is clearly straight from hell...but the better material, I think, slots together well enough. To me, the obvious thing to do would be to take the best of the Damon Dash material (This Groove, Resentment, So Cold)...pair it with the best pop album material (Should Have Known Better, Be With You, Full Stop, Flow, I'd Give It All Away, etc.)...add My Love Is For Real and boom. You'd have an album that not only towers over V's debut...but, I'd argue, would probably be the second best solo Spice album of the 2000-2010 decade behind Emma's Free Me. Given that Emma was a few years ahead of the curve with Free Me's sound, V's potential album might have been the most commercial solo Spice album of that decade. Now. Would it have gone that way? Would she have used her best stuff? There was enough bad material recorded that it could have been a disaster. Victoria is an intelligent person...which makes It's That Simple all the more baffling. Beyond that, Damon Dash tracks like That Dude and Take You There sound designed to use her voice in the most unflattering way possible. But then, Victoria always seemed to have a fascination with American music producers...which maybe clouded her judgement?

What's somewhat interesting is if I'd heard there'd be a Sam Smith/Madonna collab just a few years ago...I'd be expecting a very different song. But in 2023? As soon as I heard they'd be working together, I knew exactly what this would be. It's like I could just hear the chaos in my mind...and now that it's here...it brings no surprises. I don't find it offensive or anything. It's just...M used to be so good at pushing the envelope while also crafting a brilliant song. Now? Any sense of art is just gone. It's just...predictably crude. Nothing more. For me, this is easily her worst single in her 40+ year career. You're off the hook now, Hey You. I won't even try to understand how this song has seven writers...including true titans of the music industry. But. Whatever. Look, M brought the world a mountain of amazing music. Literally nothing she brings out now will make me less of a fan of all her great albums of the past...try as she might. I'm unlikely to ever totally give up on the prospect of her doing something great again. She was too good for too long for that. So. Onward, M. There's still that Max Martin stuff to look forward to. Hey, it can only go up...

My general feeling with their solo career single picks is that while I would make a few modifications, they generally *DID* release the one song on each album with the most commercial potential. To me, the major exceptions to this would be Victoria with I Wish (for the VB album) and Geri with Love Never Loved Me (for the Passion album). So. I guess my take is that they were hampered a lot more by their overlapping solo Spice album eras...than they were the actual single choices. But all that said, I do agree with a lot of the same picks that Mr. X and Spiceboy have made. I won't go through everything, but here's a few thoughts: Spice Girls - Forever 1. Goodbye 2. Holler 3. If You Wanna Have Some Fun/Oxygen I basically like Let Love Lead the Way, but I'd limit it to two ballads to represent the album as singles...and I just think Oxygen is stronger. It's also a fairly unique group ballad, I think...with it managing to be autobiographical from four different perspectives...even working in Victoria's child and Mel B's marital troubles. Melanie C - Northern Star 1. Go! 2. Northern Star 3. Never Be The Same Again 4. I Turn To You 5. Closer Either Go! or Gaga for the first single. I lean Go! just because William Orbit was such a hot producer at the time...and Gaga'd already been heard on a movie soundtrack. Melanie C - The Sea 1. Think About It 2. Stupid Game I feel like no one ever talks about Stupid Game, and I *love* that song. It's easily in my top ten Melanie C songs. I do think Think About It was her best shot at a hit on that album...and when that failed, nothing else was going to break through either. But I'd consider Stupid Game her second best bet. Melanie B - LA State of Mind 1. In Too Deep I mean. Nothing on this album was going to set the charts on fire...but to me, this song came the closest to being a mainstream pop track...and with a different production, could have *maybe* had some minor hit potential? Personally, I think it's far better than Today...which I find a bit meandering.

Based on the 1999 recordings, I feel the original plan for Forever would have given us an album similar to Britney Spears' 2001 Britney album. There's a mix of edgier material (Slave 4 U, Boys) and the pop she was more identified with (Anticipating). I think Britney shares something with Madonna and Janet Jackson...in that each of them handled the four albums after their breakthroughs extremely well. They all had a sort of gradual musical evolution. They got edgier over time, but it always felt natural. I think that careful evolution plays a big role in why the three of them outlasted a lot of their contemporaries who were just as talented. My guess is the Spices were faced with something of a conundrum. Based on what we've heard from leaks so far, Holler was the single strongest track they'd recorded for the project...and while all the other 1999 material gelled together well enough, Holler was an outlier. It's the clear choice for an album launcher...but none of the other 1999 material really carries its vibe. Hence...why they felt the need for the 2000 recordings. That's my guess anyway. The 2000 material is a mixed bag for me. I flat out don't like Time Goes By. The new Right Back At Ya is "fine", but it's clearly not as good as the pop version. I like Get Down With Me and Wasting My Time...but my opinions on them aren't as strong as most of this forum. I'd include them on the album but not release them as singles. Tell Me Why is the one I'm most conflicted about. I do think it's a good song...deserving of a single even. But. I don't know. Geri'd up and left them in the middle of a tour and caused them legal troubles. The rest of the girls had every right to feel salty about it. Buuut...if Goodbye is the group taking the high road, then Tell Me Why is the equivalent of the girls having a few too many drinks and saying "...but this is how we really feel." I don't love them singing about another woman's hopes and dreams not reaching their potential or whatever. I guess I just feel...it's a good song...but it's off brand for the Spice Girls.

The girls definitely took a break at probably the most inconvenient time in pop. I don't know if it was the same way everywhere in the world...but in the US, 1999 just felt like a major shift in pop music. Maybe the most dramatic shift in pop music all at once that I've seen. Britney, BSB, and NSYNC ascended to a whole other level of fame here...and they got a bigger media push in the US than I remember the Spices ever getting. Those three acts dominated...but a ton of similar acts also suddenly emerged. The Max Martin sound (or something that sounded a lot like it) was everywhere. While it would have been nice to get Forever in November of 1999, I do wonder if the girls even being absent for the first half of the year would have made it impossible for them to catch up. I remember thinking the Spices and Hanson (who'd dominated 1997...and whose popularity had carried through 1998) seemed like practically ancient history by mid-1999.

Think back to 1997/first half of 1998. What were your expectations of each of the girls' solo careers? Were your expectations anywhere close to what they ended up doing? Geri/Victoria - Honestly, I never expected solo albums out of them. It's not that I didn't like their voices. In fact, both of them often have my favorite parts of Spice songs. But with the way they were used in the group...I just didn't see either of them carrying an entire album. So. Both their solo ventures exceeded my expectations by miles. Out of Your Mind was probably the biggest surprise for me as I didn't expect Victoria to do anything that bold. As for Geri...I do have a bizarre memory. As a kid, the only song I pictured her singing was Fame (the one from the film/TV series of the same name). That was a truly odd thought as...the song is wrong for Geri, actually...and as it turned out, Geri would use the Fame film as a basis for the It's Raining Men video. Also. The first line of that song is "baby, *Look At Me*". Anyway. Hardly a premonition. But still weird. Mel C - In the early days, the uniqueness of Mel's voice kinda reminded me of Alanis Morissette...so I guessed Mel's solo output could be a little similar to Alanis' Jagged Little Pill album. So, when we first heard Gaga from Mel...I kinda figured that was, indeed, what we were getting. Now, I couldn't have guessed just how varied Mel's debut album (and career in general) would turn out to be. I do think moments of Mel's career have a slight kinship to Alanis. Goin Down doesn't sound like You Outta Know...but both are revenge songs that shed a previously more pop-y image. I'd also say Mel's Why has a similar vibe to Alanis' Uninvited. Mel B - I was kinda expecting something close to the lighter/most commercial songs by TLC. Mel could sing low and raspy like T Boz...and Mel could also rap and sing ballads. She just seemed like...one woman TLC to me? She carried some traits of all that group's members. I wasn't completely off. Hot has some of the same collaborators TLC used. I Want You Back sounds edgier than what I was expecting...but I'd also say that I loved Mel's first four singles, and they all surpassed my expectations (even if the album itself didn't) Emma - I was expecting very young sounding pop. A World Without You and the A Girl Like Me album track are very in line with what I was expecting. I figured her stuff would be good, but there's a maturity to the best of her work that I didn't expect. I didn't predict the more adult contemporary stuff like What Took You So Long...or that she'd create something as artful as the Free Me album.

Super random observation...but it appears they were referring to 2 Become 1 as "Two Become One" on this early version of the cassette.

Thanks for sharing this, Jay! I agree with all of you. I'm just glad to see her up and performing...in whatever way we can get that. I think this is by far her best appearance in this Masked Singer franchise. I think she was genuinely trying to stump the judges in the other performances...and she ended up being dull by hiding all the characteristics of her performance style. Here, she lets that natural charisma shine through. For me, this kinda continues a trend going for 20+ years in her solo endeavors where her material isn't 100% right for her voice...but she pulls this one off well enough. Oh. I don't speak the language, so I'm curious. Were the judges told this was one of the Spice Girls? It seems odd to me they'd just independently come up with Mel B, Geri, and Emma as their guesses.

There actually would have been a little precedence for the Spices going by their nicknames as solo artists...and that precedence is TLC. They released some solo stuff as "T-Boz" and as "Lisa Left Eye Lopes". It made some business sense. In the US in the late 90s, if I started talking about Rozonda Thomas and Tionne Watkins, no one would know who I was referring to. T-Boz and Chilli, though...they would. The Spice Girls had a similar situation in the US where they were far better known as their nicknames in the 90s. The inherent problem I see is unlike "T-Boz" and "Left Eye", the Spices' nicknames were somewhat limiting. How much of the girls' debut solo albums reflected their nicknames? I think you could say Victoria's was somewhat Posh Spice...and Geri's was somewhat Ginger Spice (though she quite obviously wasn't going to use that). But the others? I guess A World Without You/A Girl Like Me are a bit Baby Spice...and I Want You Back/Step Inside are a bit Scary Spice...but their albums as a whole were more reflective of their full character. For me, releasing What Took You So Long under the name Baby Spice seems...off. Releasing Goin Down under the name Sporty Spice seems...even more off.

This is my perception too...but it is an interesting thought. How would Feels Like Sex have fared as a lead single? My general thought is the Spice Girls had a basic level of edginess that was expected/accepted by their fanbase. It was a level that included the outfits of the Say You'll Be There video, the safe sex lyrics of 2 Become 1, Geri's parade of pink underwear men at the Brits, etc. The very few times they went edgier than that...I don't think it really paid off for them. I'm specifically referring to Mel C's Goin Down and Mel B's original Word Up video and Hot album. Granted, I say that while knowing the Hot album's biggest problem was releasing so close to Forever. But I also don't believe the parental advisory sticker exactly helped sell copies. Some of the girls were pulling from Madonna's playbook, but my guess is the fanbases were a bit different...and controversy didn't equal sales for the girls with quite the same effectiveness it often did for Madonna. It's not that I think Feels Like Sex is really all that edgy. But a song with that title was going to draw a lot of attention. Tabloids would have been clutching their pearls. Would it have translated to sales? We'll never really know, but I *think* it would have made the lower end of the top 10 like Scream and Calling did. Another question. What would a video for this song look like...?

Yeah, definitely those two. It took me years to warm up to Here It Comes Again...so at the time, I thought On The Horizon was getting things back on track for Mel. Admittedly, I wanted Emma to release High On Love or Better Be Careful for her next single. But. Geri'd had a big hit with a Latin-tinged single...and Mel C had a big hit with a remixed single...so...We're Not Gonna Sleep Tonight seemed like a good release to me at the time. I also remember the fanbase being pretty enthusiastic about Not Such An Innocent Girl before the release...and (perhaps the most significant change in fan perception that I remember) Calling. There were A LOT of fans claiming that song was Geri's best single leading up to the release. After the release, seemingly no one was saying that anymore. I wouldn't say we were never critical of a release. I think we always knew If That Were Me and Lullaby were mistakes...largely because both Mels had such better songs to choose from. Anyway. Getting back to Geri and Passion. I don't feel the fans dislike Ride It today, per se. But I do wish it were generally better regarded. Fans seemed to really, really like it when the clip first got out there.

Right. Even though I firmly believe Love Never Loved Me is Geri's best solo song, I do wonder what its reputation would be today if it were the song that tanked on the charts instead of Desire. It's been so many years that I think some things get forgotten...but a large part of Desire's problem was the total media blackout. I remember it actually doing well enough in video plays on various pop sites...but completely lacking radio support was going to sink any song...especially in that era. Also. Let's not forget that fans were given the choice between Love Never Loved Me and Desire as the next single...and Desire got the vote. The general public may not have known about the vote, but the hardcore fans certainly did. Now. Granted, to my memory, what we heard of both songs were earlier demo versions...and Love Never Loved Me didn't sound to the full perfection that the final version would be. I remember still preferring Love Never Loved Me...but also, I wasn't mad that Desire got the vote. I liked both. And Desire's one of the *many* solo Spice songs that I remember the fanbase liking a whole lot better before the chart position came out. But. Anyway. A media blackout happened because people just found Geri so outrageously annoying because she rode a horse down a city street or something. Everything she did for promotion seems so quaint and non-offensive to me...especially when stacked next to antics of certain reality show star/social media-clout-chasing celebs of today.

This story has kinda faded into obscurity over time...but does anybody else remember Girls Aloud doing some interviews, offering Geri to tour with them? This would have been just after she cancelled her tour amidst the low ticket sales story, I think. What I don't remember is how serious Girls Aloud were about it. It may have been as simple as some off-handed remarks..."oh, she'd be welcome to tour with us" or something. Anyway. Let's say for the sake of argument, they were serious. Would that have been a good idea? I'm sure it would have been a blow to Geri's ego...having had a very impressive chart run at one point...and then not being able to headline a tour a few years later. But. I don't know. I know a lot of people would find this to be a horrendous idea, but I think maybe a two-act tour would have genuinely helped Passion and given Geri a little more longevity? I'm sure Geri would have essentially been the opening act, but billing it as co-headliners would perhaps make it go over better. There does exist a connection there with Geri having played a certain role in the creation of the group. Maybe Girls Aloud could have come out to perform a Spice Girls medley with Geri? I do realize this arrangement's very lopsided. Geri would have significantly more to gain from it than GA.

I've always been of two minds about that. I do really like the song. It's definitely good enough to be one of their singles (it's Elton John, after all). But. I lean toward preferring it not being a single just because it's an outlier in a few ways. The girls didn't have a hand in writing it, for one. Then there's the subject matter. I like that they weren't particularly materialistic in their music. Pop stars have definitely been flaunting their wealth in songs for the past two decades...dropping name brands...and sometimes literally telling broke people to stay home. You can find a small handful of materialistic references in the Spices' work...(Victoria briefly mentions a dude's car model in I Wish), but by and large, that's not what they were about in their music...group or solo. So. For me, the lyrics of My Strongest Suit are a bit antithetical to who they are...and especially to who Mel C is (who took the bulk of the solo lines). Because I am two minds on it...I guess you could also argue that the girls could make it quite clear the song's not supposed to be taken 100% seriously...just like Madonna did with Material Girl. And within the context of the AIDA show/soundtrack, the song does make sense. It also would have been nice for people to hear a more substantial collab between the girls/Elton...something better than Elton's blink-and-miss-it cameo in SpiceWorld or their six-person duet (?) of Don't Go Breakin My Heart.

I was always a bit puzzled by the If That Were Me release just because I view it as easily the weakest song on Northern Star. I don't doubt Mel's sincerity on the subject. Geri's If Only even talks about she and Mel's care for people living without homes. It's just that the song has some genuinely clunky lyrics (that irked me even as a kid)...and doesn't have the punch of most of the other tracks on the album. I actually think she had several songs that didn't make the album cut that are far better than If That Were Me (namely Follow Me), but if the subject was that important to Mel, I get why she'd want it on her record. Probably what was most irksome was Mel barely promoting Holler (Forever's best new track with major hit potential) to spend her time pushing If That Were Me (Northern Star's worst track that's lucky to have managed #18). What would I have released instead as a fifth single? I think it would have to be a double a-side. What the four previous releases did extremely well was show different sides of Mel as an artist. So. Maybe Closer/Go! as the final single? I don't know if I'd release them as stand-alone singles, but Be The One and Suddenly Monday do have something of a classic feel to me...and they might have made for nice promo videos or something.

I could say Goin Down wasn't right for the first single because it's not indicative of the whole album...but then, really, no one song on Norther Star is indicative of the whole album. I've always liked Goin Down. Liked it then. Like it now. But I wouldn't have released it as a single. To me, it's one of the songs on the album (like Why, Suddenly Monday, and Be The One) that are really effective at setting a mood and showing another side of Mel's character...but they're best as album tracks. What should she have led with? If it hadn't already appeared on the Big Daddy soundtrack, Gaga probably would have been my choice. Radio friendly...but also establishes Mel as an artist separate from the Spice Girls. It's a less dynamic statement than Goin Down...but I also think it's the better, more substantial song. But then, the fans had known the song for months because of the Big Daddy soundtrack...and I get the importance of releasing something fresh. I think Go! also had more commercial potential than Goin Down. Also. People seem to rarely talk about this song...but in some alternate universe where the slickly produced, Bend It Like Beckham soundtrack cut of Independence Day already existed in 1999...I think that would have been a pretty perfect debut single. The version we DID have in 1999 might not have made that big of a splash...but my feeling was always that Bend It Like Beckham version had hit written all over it.

I will say this, though. For all the flack the girls got for their ads, I actually do prefer how they did it to how some music icons handled ads before them. Move Over (and to a lesser extent, Power of 5) sound pretty good when stacked up next to, say...Paula Abdul's Diet Coke song from a few years earlier. Then there's Madonna's Pepsi commercial set to Like A Prayer. It wouldn't have aired much...because it was yanked down over the controversy of the song's real video. But. Still. It's super weird now watching a video with one of M's signature songs have PEPSI PEPSI PEPSI flashed through it. Worst of all to me is Michael Jackson...who changed the lyrics of classics Billie Jean and Bad to be literally ABOUT Pepsi. Woof. Granted, those songs would have been new when the ads were created...and not yet viewed as some of the most recognizable pop songs ever. But. Wow, do those adapted lyrics seem weird now.

Saw them in July 1998. Nashville. They would have recorded Goodbye at a local studio during this same stop. I remember quite a bit about it, really. Ate at Planet Hollywood that day...and they were playing a "Spice Girls at Planet Hollywood" video on the screens. My guess is that was probably part of their video loop that summer...and not just playing because of the show that night. But. Anyway. I was young and dumb enough to ask a parent to take me to the big fancy hotel in town and ask the front desk if the girls were staying there. "No, but you might check the Motel 6." Rude. It was an amphitheater. Got the black tour shirt with the girls' faces projected onto buildings. Before the show they played a couple music videos...namely 5ive's When The Lights Go Out and Natalie Imbruglia's Torn (incidentally, those were the only major hits each act had in the US). They also played a super short version of the Aprilia ad...some murky footage of the girls set to Spice Up Your Life. You could barely tell if Geri was in the footage or not. In the US, the Spice Girls were far more famous as a complete unit than as individuals...so I don't remember the crowd being especially phased by Geri's absence. Keeping in mind, the Union Jack dress and patting of Prince Charles' butt were bigger cultural moments in the UK...so...I don't think Geri was viewed as quite as essential in the US. It was my first major show, so I didn't realize that it was outside the norm for a main act to take an intermission...and also feature a sign language interpreter on the screen. I haven't been to a show since that has done either of those things. Of course, the show was fab. Favorite moments? The If U Can't Dance opening was EPIC in the amphitheater. Always loved that band's live take on Say You'll Be There, and it sounded really damn good live. Sisters with the Mels was great. In terms of pacing, it honestly was an excellently created show.

Well. The Hercules thing is partly true. People have gotten it confused over the years thinking the girls were offered the roles of the muses. They weren't offered that...or to be in the actual movie. Work on the film would have been going on for years before the girls exploded onto the scene, after all. What they were offered was a chance to record I Won't Say I'm In Love for the movie soundtrack. The song's writer, Alan Menken, has talked about how it was a big disappointment that Simon/the girls couldn't work it into their schedules. Granted, the Spice Girls were a far bigger cultural moment than the Hercules film in 1997. But recording the song for the soundtrack would still have been a mutually beneficial thing. By 1997, Disney's soundtrack songs weren't getting the same attention they had with Aladdin and Lion King a few years earlier. The Spice Girls would have unquestionably given that song a boost...and made it something better remembered today. And it was just a good idea for the girls to be looped in with a juggernaut like Disney. I'm sure the girls and their producers would have reworked the song into their style...just the same as they'd do with My Strongest Suit two years later. But. No. It couldn't work out...but they could find time for a lot of potato chip commercials... (I'm not totally knocking the Walkers commercials...some of them are fairly cute...)

I think they managed to have about as good a pop song/jingle hybrid as there's ever been with Move Over. That song fits the commercial's vibe...but the lyrics are never directly about Pepsi. Someone listening to Spiceworld today would have no idea there was a track in the mix that was "the Pepsi song". For years, I thought Move Over was a song the girls selected for their commercial...rather than the real story...that it DID start out life as a jingle that the girls just expanded on. The Power of 5 is a different story, though. I guess I could see a version of the song *with different lyrics* as a potential b-side (if I remember correctly, the girls and their producers DID write this jingle). But I *really* wouldn't want a b-side where the girls are singing about a TV channel. Nope. Nope. Nope. The commercial itself, I think is pretty cute. Their looks are great. There are good shots in there. As a video goes, I do think The Power of 5 commercial is better than the Headlines video...but that may say more about the Headlines video than the Power of 5 commercial. I guess this commercial was harmless enough...though it's hard for me to shake that the girls/Simon turned down the chance to work with Disney and record a song for the Hercules soundtrack (an obviously high profile project...and it would've been wise to be linked with Disney)...but they always seemed to have time for lower rent stuff.

I would support any of them touring...and in Geri's case, I think she would've had the material to potentially make a really fun setlist. I'll admit that I was nervous at the time about THAT era of Geri touring. After making pretty solid decisions about collaborators in the first few years of her career, she'd hired a friend to direct the Ride It video...and...to me, it showed. The Ride It performances never seemed like they'd been rehearsed much. When she performed her past hits around that time, it was with minimal choreography. It seemed she wanted to just stand around bow-legged and make a few gestures with her arms. Nothing seemed especially focused...and I'm not sure how a tour would have fared, springing from that. I actually feel the prime times for her to tour would have been right after the Bag It Up release...or launching after the release of It's Raining Men. Both of these eras showed a Geri who was willing to go for broke. That Geri would flood the BRITS stage with men in pink underwear...or parade out so many IRM dancers at Party in the Park that you weren't sure which side was the stage and which side was the crowd. That Geri needed to stage a show.

I have my hopes we'll get some more unreleased music. My concern is the group and their team may not believe the public has much interest in new (to us) stuff. Response was somewhat quiet to Feed Your Love and Step To Me (not new to us, but new to streaming). There are easy explanations for that. Feed Your Love is a fairly subtle jam that I personally like...but it doesn't demand attention. And there was never a point I couldn't find someplace to listen to Step To Me...even if it wasn't on Spotify specifically. But...I could see someone at the label looking at those low streaming numbers for those two (and Headlines and Voodoo)...and thinking any small effort they give should just be on the established hits.

A piano honestly would help. Time Goes By is easily my least favorite album track by the group. Nothing else comes close. There's a lot I don't like about the song...but it doesn't help that it even gets off to a bad start. That keyboard opening sounds like a karaoke kids' talent show. It's a fairly unusual song for the Darkchild team...as it definitely didn't fit pop in 2000...and is rather...uncool? I could imagine it having a production similar to Melanie C's Reason...with piano accompaniment and light instrumental backing. I wouldn't say that would totally fix the song, per se. To me the lyrics/delivery/everything just feels inauthentic (something I wouldn't say about any other group ballad). But I do think the piano accompaniment *would* help the song stand out as something unique in their discography...and more serving a purpose as a vocal showcase.

Yeah. I wish Mel B could have managed a top 10 album too. While it's my least favorite of the solo Spices' debut albums, I still view it as three brilliant songs...another three decent album tracks...and five 'meh' songs. It's not THAT bleak a situation. And (for me at least), it deserved the top 10 just on the strength of the album's best songs. But...y'know...it was that disastrous release timing. Plus, Mel herself said in some of the promo that Forever was a better album than her own. Which. I mean. She's right. Points for honesty. But it's probably not the best thing to say when you're trying to promote a solo album. Few other thoughts. Though it's my least favorite solo Spice debut album, Hot actually is my favorite opening two songs. I think Feels So Good and Tell Me are killer (I've long accepted that I apparently like Tell Me better than the entire rest of the fanbase). However. While Hot has my favorite two opening songs...it definitely does not have my favorite three openings songs. To me, the album's momentum drops off a cliff with Hell No...a song that could have been recorded (or more likely rejected) by literally any r'n'b act in 2000.

I have somewhat mixed feelings about M as a figure against ageism. On the one hand, she's right in that women over 45 are far too ignored in media. Why is it so impossible for really any artist past that age to get a hit? And honestly, some of M's output HAS deserved a lot more attention. But. Here's the flip side. Would the Madonna of 2023 feature another artist her age on a song? Years ago, she said men her age are fat and grumpy. She surrounds herself with much younger people. And. Y'know. Frankly, in terms of collaborators...she should work with whoever she wants. But one could perceive that her interest isn't really about a battle against ageism in general...but more just...a battle against ageism as it pertains to Madonna. As for the reaction to her Grammy pictures last week...people are being overly cruel yet again. As much as we want to think we've evolved in 2023, social media places way too much importance on snark for me to believe people have honestly gotten any less petty and mean. But. Here's the deal. M blaming the camera for making her look a certain way is a bit...deluded. The camera got what it got. What WAS distorted were all the pictures (now deleted) on M's Instagram to make her look like a different person than who she is today. I can't help but think of her team taking her Eurovision and Tears Of a Clown audios (both already widely heard) and distorting it all to make it sound like she hit all her notes. So. I dunno. I give her credit for saying things about ageism that not enough people are saying. But being in denial of what you look like/what your voice sounds like at that age...I'm just not sure that's the healthiest way to age.