Melanie C - Northern Star (album)

From this little hitch...

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I think I've heard MOST of their albums (I own quite a few due, mostly, to charity shop purchasing, from back in the days of buying cd albums for the odd song). I shall appraise them here:

B
Hot- Couple of good'uns- love the debut single, "Feels So Good" is alright. "Pack Yo Shit" has its moments, perhaps in a comedy way now more than anyone.
Haven't heard anything else

BECKHAM:
Debut- UTTERLY without merit.
Those other songs- "Let Your Head Go" was a Kylie bside but more "Harmony" than "Tightrope", the R&B stuff was HILARITY ITSELF and I'm still laughing about it now...

BUNTON:
Debut- Dreary. Couple of good singles but on the whole, filler central.
Free Me- Still LOVE the title track. "Maybe" is entirely overrated but I can, begrudglingly, see why people like it, though it's not for me. "Crickets Sing..." may be the worst thing a Spice Girl has put to record though :D
Life In Mono- Still love "All I Need To Know". Can't really remember anything else...

C
Northern Star- See above
Haven't heard anything else

HALLIWELL
Schizophonic- Killer, killer singles. Couple of other good songs, the most "complete" of the Spice Girl albums for me at first thought.
Scream- Terrible. Truly appalling.
Passion- A massive step up. I like both singles (even "Desire" has its charms now) a lot and obviously "Love Never Loved Me" is a TRIUMPH. A smattering of other good bits too secures Halliwell's position as the top solo Spice
 
Sheena has about as much perspective when it comes to the Spice Girls (particularly solo) as I do. Just from the other direction.

I re-read the Emma Bunton Downtown/Life In Mono era thread the other day and his anti-Baby raving is positively DERANGED. :D
 
https://www.moopy.co.uk/showthread....and-other-stuff-all-merged-(&highlight=Bunton
 
I think I went a little bit OVERBOARD/loon by rating it with a 9 but an 8 is fine by me, I love it, it has it's flaws and low points but the highlights make up for it

Sadly the same cannot be said about the other debuts :eyes: YES especially HOT (out now)

09 Go!
10 Northern Star
08 Goin' Down
08 I Turn To You
05 If That Were Me
09 Never Be The Same Again
04 Why
05 Suddenly Monday
08 Ga Ga
06 Be The One
10 Closer
10 Feel The Sun

I totally forgot I really really like the last two tracks, nothing they've ever done (as a group or solo) can come close to this (except maybe Viva Forever at a stretch)
 
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Not really. She's an artist I like, I try to look on the positive side.

Your bleating is on the level with my Christina Aguilera trolling. Except it makes less sense because Christina is ACTUALLY the embodiment of pure evil whereas Emma Bunton is banal at worst.
 
Christina is entirely divisive- I don't think you can deny the fact that her tunes have some merit to them- she can sing, she has a hand in songwriting (though admittedly who knows how much) and she has made some very good pop records in the past. Even Leona has a marvellous voice, whatever you think of the rest of her.

Bunton is just an EMPTY VESSEL. I stand by most of those comments- especially the ones going on about the HORROR that was "Downtown" being "brilliant".
 
08 Go!
11 Northern Star
10 Goin' Down
10 I Turn to You
08 If That Were Me
09 Never Be the Same Again
10 Why
10 Suddenly Monday
10 Ga Ga
08 Be the One
10 Closer
11 Feel the Sun
 
Sheena said:
HALLIWELL
Schizophonic- Killer, killer singles. Couple of other good songs, the most "complete" of the Spice Girl albums for me at first thought.
Scream- Terrible. Truly appalling.
Passion- A massive step up. I like both singles (even "Desire" has its charms now) a lot and obviously "Love Never Loved Me" is a TRIUMPH. A smattering of other good bits too secures Halliwell's position as the top solo Spice
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YAY :disco:

Glad to see Passion getting a fair ride in this thread. I always thought it was hated here. The main problem with Passion is the lack of direction. But the high's are the best work she has ever done in my opinion.
 
A geat pop album, for a loon it was perfection, definitely in my top 10 most played albums. Still like it

08 Go!
10 Northern Star
10 Goin' Down
10 I Turn to You
04 If That Were Me
09 Never Be the Same Again
08 Why
09 Suddenly Monday
07 Ga Ga
05 Be the One
11 Closer
08 Feel the Sun
 
From memory...

05 Go! - actually not much of a song; in those days having a whole tune as an introduction to an album was fine, not now..
10 Northern Star - I still think this is gorgeous; the chorus is such exquisite sadness, steeped as it is in hope rather than joy.
08 Goin' Down - I'd still add a thick layer of noisy feedback guitar; it should have been more "fuck you"
07 I Turn To You - album version > the single remix(es)
08 If That Were Me - I always thought this was much better than was "allowed" at the time - given the way people act about their bloody phones now, well...
07 Never Be The Same Again - a pinch overrated
?? Why - I can't remember the first thing about it...I think it's an aimless atmospheric thingy that aims for Portishead and gets, well, Salford maybe.
02 Suddenly Monday - it gets 2 points cos it was good fun when she did it live, otherwise, a horrid little post-Britpop cheeseball - the kind you find under the sofa three days after a party
09 Ga Ga - Loved this - Halliwell would have killed for the panache with which MC drawls "sheeee's a draaaag"
06 Be The One - a bit flimsy but delivered with enough style to work
10 Closer - the highpoint - widescreen enough to be dramatic, but intimate enough to feel genuine
09 Feel The Sun - great ending, the shift from darkness into light.
 
The only good solo Spice album


07 Go!
10 Northern Star
10 Goin' Down
10 I Turn to You
05 If That Were Me
08 Never Be the Same Again
08 Why
04 Suddenly Monday
07 Ga Ga
04 Be the One
08 Closer
09 Feel the Sun
 
I dug out my copy of If That Were Me (IKR! don't hate, I bought for the ITTY remixes and a live version of When You're Gone) and totally forgot about this monstrosity



about as r&b as Britney :zombie:
 
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I still think this is a bloody brilliant pop album and it's such a shame that she's never come CLOSE to anything as good as this since.

09 Go!
09 Northern Star
09 Goin' Down
10 I Turn To You (for the album version)
07 If That Were Me
09 Never Be The Same Again
10 Why
08 Suddenly Monday
09 Ga Ga
09 Be The One
10 Closer
10 Feel The Sun
 
Thinking about it, the only solo album I have time for are the three Emma ones. And whilst they have moments of greatness, they're more pleasant pop rather than album-of-the-year stuff. The other ones I've sat through seem to be 3-4 good tracks (though of their time) and then about 7 absolute filler tracks.

Even when I adored Geri, only the four singles really did anything for me on the debut. I took the second one back because it was so bad. Like beyond-belief bad pop music. I still can't quite believe that - the first album was a successful project, how did the follow-up sound like it was produced in 1982?!
 
21 years now, give or take a few days. :eyes:

I had a listen earlier. It really is very good for the most part. Weirdly I was listening while reading the Impossible Princess thread, and in terms of the approach it strikes me that they're not ENTIRELY dissimilar. :D Woman in mid 20s best known for shiny pop releases genre-hopping grab bag of songs heavily and transparently inspired by the artists she likely enjoys listening to herself (including Garbage in both cases).

The difference of course is that Mel actually brought the HITS :disco: (on this occasion and NEVER AGAIN)



08 Go! - A great opener that should have been the 5th single really.
10 Northern Star
08 Goin' Down - Objectively awful but SUCH a comedy classic, I can't help adoring it :D
10 I Turn To You - Enjoy both versions, but for me the handbag trance mix is superior
07 If That Were Me - The tune is actually QUITE NICE if you ignore those jaw-dropping lyrics.
09 Never Be The Same Again
08 Why
06 Suddenly Monday - bit twee
09 Ga Ga - The other lost single. I believe it was the b-side to Goin' Down, which is just utterly insane :D
06 Be The One
08 Closer
09 Feel The Sun
 
I have Love To You, not sure where it’s from, feels like it fits on NS, though I think it was from later
 
RaspberrySwirl said:
Victoria's album is wonderful! I don't know how some of you can listen o the worst kind of pop from Slovenia and then be snobby about VB!
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This is still correct (even though I would rather not listen to it. In fact I haven’t for decades).
 
VoR said:
09 Ga Ga - The other lost single. I believe it was the b-side to Goin' Down, which is just utterly insane :D
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Virgin's decision. It had been on some film soundtrack or another and had been fairly well received but they reckoned "Goin' Down" was risky and added it to the single as they thought it might sell a few copies that GD wouldn't.

IIRC, it was also put on the album ahead of a few of the other more rawk tracks at their insistance as well (ie "Something's Gonna Happen" which was in every live set but everyone at Virgin hated it so it was bumped to a b-side).
 
I must pull this album out. The last time I listened to it was after that rating but still a few years ago. I enjoyed Be The One more, I was right about Go! and Why? and the last two tracks are still sublime, as is the title track.
 
octophone said:
Virgin's decision. It had been on some film soundtrack or another and had been fairly well received but they reckoned "Goin' Down" was risky and added it to the single as they thought it might sell a few copies that GD wouldn't.

IIRC, it was also put on the album ahead of a few of the other more rawk tracks at their insistance as well (ie "Something's Gonna Happen" which was in every live set but everyone at Virgin hated it so it was bumped to a b-side).
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I'm sure I've also definitely seen the cover with a sticker saying "Contains "Goin' Down", "Northern Star" and "Ga Ga"" so I assume it had been mooted as a single at some point. Maybe if her rocky image had gone down (:basil:) better?
 
Gaga was a radio single in NZ alongside Goin Down (seemed more like Gaga for radio and Goin Down for the telly) - so perhaps it was an international one given Goin Down did so badly outside the UK?
 
I do remember Gaga being played on the radio here at the time
 
octophone said:
IIRC, it was also put on the album ahead of a few of the other more rawk tracks at their insistance as well (ie "Something's Gonna Happen" which was in every live set but everyone at Virgin hated it so it was bumped to a b-side).
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This ended up in the Bend It Like Beckham soundtrack if I recall correctly but as a different mix. After some research, I've found she had 5 b-sides during the NS era.
Prolific queen!
 
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