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Melanie C – Melanie C

Florian Buechting Media Review No Comments

Melanie C - Melanie C

Melanie C - Melanie C
2.3

Rating

 2.3/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Great first track
  • ... and few good songs

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Most of the songs are confusing or bad
  • Just much worse than albums like "Northern Star"

Melanie C. is far more than just “Sporty Spice”. Based on her Spice Girls success, she managed to have an independent individual career. I loved to listen to her previous albums. The more, I was looking forward to her 2020 album, which is simply self-titled. She released the album on 2nd October 2020.

 

Melanie C – About The Artist

Melanie Jayne Chrisholm was born on 12th January 1974 in Whiston between Liverpool and Manchester in the United Kingdom. She of course became big as “Mel C” or “Sporty Spice” being part of the legendary Spice Girls. However, she also transformed quick after the split of the girl band. Her solo debut Northern Star topped the charts in Sweden and went Top 10 in many other markets. Before that, she already joined Bryan Adams in his 1998 When You’re Gone, which has been a very popular single. Northern Star was boosted by the title track as well as two UK chart toppers, Never Be the Same Again and I Turn To You. Another chart-topping single was the 2005 First Day of My Life, which headed the German charts without even being listed in Melanie C’s home country. Germany and Switzerland have been the most popular markets for her on the album side in the past. However, her previous album, the 2016 Version of Me ranked 25th in the UK and thus gave her the best album chart placement there since 2005. Melanie C, which will be released as cassette (!), box set, CD, vinyl and download/streaming, will be her ninth album.

 

Melanie C – Melanie C – Track by Track

Melanie C’s 2020 album includes ten tracks and lasts 35 minutes.

1. Who I Am

The first song is the sulky, self-confident and rhythmic Who I Am. Melanie C simply states That’s who I am – a song which has been released about half a year before the album. I feel it’s a real blast. Very clear message, good and catchy pop track… and it strongly feels like Melanie C. Love it!

2. Blame It On Me

Why don’t you just blame it on me again
Wide awake but you’re sound asleep again
If it works for you then I’ll take the heat again
Running outta people you can call your friend
So why don’t you just blame it on me

Somehow, I feel the song is not too bad – but compared to Who I Am, it is just so much weaker. The electric sounds sometimes even feel distracting to me.

3. Good Enough

The very rhythmic (but maybe too simple in chorus) Good Enough feels to be a much better fit to Melanie C to me again. The song has quite some power and catches me.

4. Escape

Don’t hold your breath, gotta let it go
Dive deeper in, into the unknown
If you don’t try then you’ll never know
So take a breath, just take a breath
And let it all go, go, let it all go
Let it go, let it go

If Melanie C was a roller coaster (based on the first four songs, at least), it would be quite a good one: up, down, up, down. Unfortunately, the Escape is rather a downside of the album again. The song is not catchy at all to me.

5. Overload

While the lyrics of the song so far had quite some depth, especially compared to dance-pop songs of other artists, Overload states fifteen times that You don’t wanna see me go, supported by five times You’re pushing me to overload. Not too much substance for a not too much uptempo 3:18 minute track – which finally has not sufficient substance to be good.

6. Fearless (feat. Nadia Rose)

For Fearless, Melanie C joined the studio with British rapper and songwriter Nadia Rose. Rap and dance-pop feels like a quite straight and commercial combination – but here, it rather turns to a failure. Bad luck.

7. Here I Am

It breaks my heart. The album started with two good (or even: great) songs out of three. The longer the album lasts, the more Melanie C feels like a frantic try to connect to something which people like. Here I Am is no song you remember one hour after you listened to them – which at least also includes that it is not a vast desaster.

8. Nowhere To Run

Sad to say, but Nowhere To Run is the anticlimax of the album to me. Even the song feels desparate. Why?

9. In And Out Of Love

And then there is In And Out Of Love. It will not make it into any “Song of the Year 2020” list – but at least, it is a clear Melanie C sound, a straight and somehow even catching composition. It is maybe not the hardest songwriting task to be the third or fourth best song of this album, but I still appreciate it.

10. End Of Everything

The album finishes with a deep, depressive ballad. Somehow worrying, though it is maybe the best lyrics of the album.

I’ve finally gone and told you, this act of ours is over
A future torn apart
And if you asked me, a year ago where I’d be
Without you there beside me
I wouldn’t know where to start

I should be crying
Head in my hands and hiding
Or fired up like lightning
But I don’t feel a thing
I should be broken
From all these words unspoken
Now it’s all a fall down
I don’t feel a thing

 

Melanie C – Melanie C – Spotify

Here is the Spotify widget to Meanie C’s album:

 

Melanie C – Melanie C – My View

I enjoyed the Spice Girls – and “Mel C” was definitely one of my favorites. I especially enjoyed her solo stuff she released after her band times. The more I am worried about Melanie Chrisholm here. Where is her road going to? The album Melanie C does not give a too positive answer. I am simply grasping the first track of the album and hope it is getting better soon. 2020 is not the right year for this artist, unfortunately.

 

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