Nafftastic-Emma Bunton

Sweet Ms Bunton.

 

Even if she becomes a suicide bomber or Sarah Palin’s lover, she will always be remembered as the cute girl from the Spice Girls. She was the one that your mother would have liked you to date, sweet, a little cheeky, and definitely pretty, but perhaps not as sexy as Geri, or as cool as Vicky. She discreetly shared the lead vocals with Mel C on most of their big tracks. Yeah I know your probably surprised at that but if you listen to Stop, 2 Become 1, Goodbye, Too Much and loads and loads of others, it is Emma’s vocals that lead the chorus, while Mel C can be heard screaming away in the background.

 

But I’m getting way to into the Spicy women here. What I set out to do in writing this was to shed a little light on her fragile and underappreciated solo career. To do this though, it’s impossible not to compare her to her fellow band mates. It’s generally accepted that Mel C had the most credible solo career, and to be fair perhaps she deserves it. She is a keen songwriter, she has a decent voice (if a bit metallic) and is a great live performer. I saw Mel C live in 2003, and she was really good. She had energy and a great band, but one thing was slightly askew. Her songs. Yeah ok, she had some clever numbers from her debut, but the highlights on her second were of a duller nature, and as her catalogue grew, the quality of her material went down the drain. Almost the exact opposite happened with Emma’s Career. Her debut “A Girl Like Me” was released, most probably because Emma felt releasing a solo album was the natural thing to do, and it was a slightly lackluster affair. “What Took You So Long” was a fun and breezy experiment in gentle acoustic pop, and if you listen to it just at 2:08 it almost, almost sounds like she’s saying, “I’ll suck you all night”. It was to be Emma’s only number one hit, and the album followed soon after. Unfortunately the album was as bland as pie, and apart from one or two catchy numbers, was instantly forgettable.

 

It seemed little Baby Bunton’s career in music was over. Her voice was sweet and easy to listen to but it was painfully obvious that had Emma not been in the Spice Girls, “A Girl Like Me” would never have been released.

 

However…a few years later, Emma released “Free Me”. And it was the perfect pop album. It came from nowhere, suddenly she found this genre of music that she felt comfortable in. It was still pop, but had a 60’s sound to it, a little Austin powers, a little James Bond. Her voice suddenly gained range. Imagine that, a Spice Girl with range!! “Free Me” was the first solo Spice Girl album (aside from Mel C’s Northern Star) that deserved a place on the charts. And it was the first real indication that perhaps Emma would have had a musical career regardless of her history with the girls. Lacking any filler whatsoever it consisted of 12 retro Motown numbers that made you want to rent a speedboat in the Caribbean. If any album was meant to be played in summer…

Maybe was the only real hit off the album, yet by the time the album was released, Spice fever was well over and for the first time, being a Spice girl was more likely to hinder your career then help it. Had the same album been released by another singer, and had the same amount of airplay, it would have sold far more, and reviews would have been better. It still did do well, and reviews still were quite good, but for such a stellar and unique album, it deserved better.

 

“Free Me” is Emma’s definite 46 minutes of music, but not her last. She released her third and final album (to date) “Life In Mono” in 2006.

 

It is a subtler number then “Free Me” and not nearly as commercial. Continuing with the 60’s theme she added a French sass to it, while still in keeping with modern music. Unfortunately, unmusical and unrespectable record companies were frightened by the albums seemly lack of a hit single, so asked her to cover some naff songs of the genre she was toying with. “Downtown” did not need to be rehashed, and no one but Doris Day will ever be able to sing “Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps”. However they were stuck on the end of the album like a prosthetic limb.

One cover that most certainly did deserve to be on the album however was it’s namesake, “Life In Mono”. Siobhan de Mare originally recorded the song, but it sounds like it was designed for Emma’s Silky vocals. It is without a doubt the best song she has ever leant her voice to, including the herb days. The only single to come from the album was “All I Need To Know” (I don’t count Downtown) which didn’t even make it into the top 50. It was never going to reach number one, but that didn’t matter.

 

 

I don’t know if Emma is going to release another album, “Life In Mono” only sold about 3 copies. I would love to sit her down and give her some advice. First of all, she needs to get off her arse and do some touring. You have to be Kate Bush nowadays to release albums and not tour. She has sung to huge crowds all around the world so gathering a little band and playing to small clubs wouldn’t be an issue for her. The difference between her and Mel C is that Mel is confidant in her music. She believes it is good, and this comes across in her performances. Emma though, seems shy. She can sing just as well as plenty of other solo singers, Christina or Mariah she is not, but she has just as good a voice as Katie Melua or Dido.

Come on Emma, Your better then the Spice girls, prove it…. 

 

 

Check out her version o Life of Mono,  its brillo pad