Red Girl Records – 2020
Here’s a question I’m sure we’ve all pondered at one point in our lives – how do you reconcile your professional history as a member of the Spice Girls with a maturing personal and artistic temperament? Melanie C’s self-titled eighth studio album walks us all through the process of bringing those two identities – historically at odds with each other – to a place of amicable coexistence.
Now, before you accuse me of jumping the gun, I am aware that there are seven Mel C records that document sections of the journey to becoming Adult Spice. Without being dismissive of any of those efforts, I can say with confidence that Melanie C is the most decisive step in her artistic pilgrimage.
Before I tell you what I think, let me geek out on Spice Girls for just a minute. That’s what you’re really here for anyway, right? Spice Power took the world by force in the late 90s and influenced nearly every aspect of pop culture. Music, fashion, literature, film – there was a touch of Girl Power almost everywhere you looked. Then, at least in the U.S., it was over just as quickly as it started. The Girls disappeared into harsh obscurity, with many die-hard fans renouncing their newly discovered feminism and taste for platform sneakers. Several year later, when the Spice had settled, shifts in global cultural climate made the Girls relevant again, particularly in the areas of progressive feminism, LGBTQ+ rights, and a general conviction to embrace positivity in all forms. By the 2010s, the world was ready to Spice up their lives once again.
In 2019, the Spice Girls embarked on an ambitious European tour that brought them together in a new context. Besides the new landscape that now longed for their words of positive empowerment, they are all in different stages of life. Sans Victoria Beckham, the Spice Mums took to stages together as adult women instead of mythical characters, and the world was there for it. All of this must have cut Melanie Chisholm, known to some as Sporty Spice, to the core. This new album reveals it to us.
Replete with lush synth soundscapes and club-worthy dance grooves, Melanie C is a strong departure from the pop radio showings in her back catalog. She’s not trying to appease us; she’s not trying to shock us. She’s trying, probably more successfully than any other point in her career, to be honest with us.
Melanie is open with the fact that this album was influenced heavily by the Spice reunion shows, and that the process of becoming Sporty Spice again came to bear on her in unexpected ways. In reference to an interview from Vogue earlier this month, Melanie confesses that Sporty Spice is not a novelty or an embarrassment. It is her identity – but not her whole identity.
Embracing both her old self and her new self, Chisholm gives us an album that seeks balance between what has been, what is, and what is to come. Exploring deeper emotional and personal subject matter than is common in pop music in 2020 (except, obviously, for “WAP”), Melanie encourages listeners to stop battling what is unavoidable and inevitable, and to welcome them. Save for some moments that encourage rejection of toxicity, most of the lyrics are decidedly upbeat, favoring happiness over hostility.
The record is full of genuine personality, likely due in large part to Chisholm’s writing credit on every cut. Still, I will give credit where credit is due. Many of Chisholm’s co-writers and producers on this record are artists and performers in their own rite, including Future Cut, Ten Ven, and Billen Ted. Bringing these artists into the fold helped give Chisholm a voice honest enough to tell Melanie C’s story.
The high point on this record, for me, is the track “Overload,” where Mel asserts “I don’t want to be your acceptable version of me.” At the surface level, one could assume this message is meant for an ex-friend or lover. If I consider the words a bit longer, however, I would encourage you to say some version of that lyric to yourself, and I’ll bet Chisholm would agree. It’s not enough to cancel everyone who makes you feel bad – you have to be able to love yourself enough to tell yourself the truth and become better because of it.
Now, don’t expect to have your whole world shaken by this record. This is not an album that’s going to win over new fans to dance-pop music or bring Spice-haters over to the other side. This is a personal revelation in the life of a strong woman who has been to the cosmos of pop superstardom and wants to bring pieces of that life back down to earth.
Ready for me to wrap this up? Here it is: Melanie C is probably the most personally relatable album from an ex-spice, and provides some upbeat, positive anthems to take with is into a future that looms with bleakness.
Our Score: 7.5/10
Reach James, the author of this review at JamesUnderFire@gmail.com