Pros: Sunny acoustic strumming and a few engaging melodies.
Cons: The arrangements are a bit monotonous. No substance. Weak singing.
The Bottom Line: "A Girl Like Me" epitomises inoffensively pleasant, pretence-free and summery guitar pop. It's hardly a great record, but as far as solo Spice Girl outings go, it's pretty enjoyable.
floatingcity's Full Review: A Girl Like Me by Emma Bunton
If there’s one bad thing about over-exposed pop bands breaking up, it’s that you’re quickly going to be bombarded with substandard solo projects. Such is the case with the Spice Girls, where the group somehow amounted to far more than the sum of its parts. Although they’ve never officially disbanded, the flop of the girls’ 2000 record “Forever” was the final nail in the Spice coffin, and each of the members went on to unleash new projects.
Step forward Emma ‘Baby Spice’ Bunton, who issued her debut solo record “A Girl Like Me” in 2001 (although the album never made it to release in North America, which can be a good or bad thing depending on your tastes). Exchanging her previous over-the-top persona for something a little more mature, Emma delivers 12 simple guitar pop songs that don’t try to disguise themselves as anything more than that. The change is a welcome one, and the best tracks here are cute, honeyed ditties suitable for hot lazy days.
The best song on the album is “What Took You So Long?”, which was a UK No. 1 hit thanks to its gentle melody and radio-friendly acoustic guitars. Although Emma’s voice has a tendency to be thin and weedy, her technically fragile vocals rest nicely atop the sweet crunch of the music, with handclap beats providing a little variation during the chorus. It’s calmly and quietly catchy – not the type of song you’d hear and rush out to buy, but something you’d turn up and enjoy if it came on the radio. A cover of UK one-hit wonder Zoe’s “Sunshine On A Rainy Day” is equally enjoyable; a smoothly chugging piece of pop/rock accompanied by some hazy synthesiser washes and expansive drum fills. The melody is quite reasonable, and Emma’s singing is better than usual, with the teeniest bit of passion on the chorus and some tasteful overdubs over gospel-styled backing vocals.
Another single release was the mid-tempo love ode “Take My Breath Away” (not a cover of the Berlin song), although it was issued in a remixed format. The original version is less airbrushed, and what I dub a ‘dry toast’ track. The dominant guitars continue to kick out a summery groove, but the minimal arrangement (guitar, drum, vocals and the occasional synth-string) proves rather arid, so it can get draining taken in excess. The song would definitely be improved by adding a few extra elements into the mix, but I can enjoy it for what it is. “A World Without You” corrects those errors, with an admittedly generic string section framing an R&B ballad. It would help if Emma had some kind of emotion or conviction in her voice, but the track’s pretty enough to get by. “Spell It O.U.T.” is much the same, utilising a few finger-snap beats and hints of piano in what’s lyrically a typical break-up song. Still, the running time is nice and short, and it finishes just as it’s starting to wear out its welcome.
A couple of songs do attempt to break from the summery template, but it’s to mixed results. The title track “A Girl Like Me” is a rather unappealing piece of disco, composed heavily on synthesised instruments and sounding cheap and nasty. The baseline and melody sound like they were written in five minutes, and the lyrics commit the cardinal sin of ‘fake swearing’, where a curse word is hinted at but then tackily bleeped out. Sorry Emma, but you’re not ‘hardcore’ and never will be. Please don’t do that again. “She Was A Friend Of Mine” also sounds unconvincing, a tale of a man-stealing friend sung without a drop of feeling. It’s a little catchy, but even the worst songs by the likes of Abba could trample all over it melodically.
Fortunately, those excursions into silliness can be forgiven due to the energetic stomp of “Better Be Careful”, which blends equal parts Motown and Latin spice into a toe-tapping slice of fun. The melody could have been much better, but I can overlook it in favour of the much-needed sonic variation the song provides. “We’re Not Gonna Sleep Tonight” similarly incorporates a flamenco motif in parts of its verses and bridge, with a decent beat excusing a few ugly excursions into vocoder-land.
The remaining songs return to the typical template, but do so well. Acoustic strum-along “High on Love” is a rather sweet love song where the guitars are well padded-out by a fleshy drumbeat and gliding strings, and the simple repetitive structure of its chorus enables it to be quite memorable. The closing cover of Edie Brickell’s “What I Am” is also fine, with producers Tin Tin Out contributing a wah-wah guitar lick and funky baseline amidst a few slices of Hammond Organ. Emma does a reasonable job with the vocals, and the components come together to create a cool, laid-back groove. I’ll admit to not having any use for the thoroughly unimaginative “Been There, Done That”, but the ratio of decent to poor songs is acceptable overall.
Taken as a whole, “A Girl Like Me” is a workable album that seldom bombs, but is equally infrequent when it comes to greatness. The fairly homogenous arrangements provide consistency at the expense of interest, while the vocals and melodies have a tendency to be wispy fluff that lasts no longer than the songs themselves. That said, the stronger tracks like “What Took You So Long?”, “High On Love” and “Sunshine On A Rainy Day” are good clean fun, and that’s the most you could hope for from a solo Spice album. It’s worth checking out it if you’re a fan of Emma or the Spice Girls, but most people will be fairly comfortable giving it a miss.
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