TRACK REVIEW: Melanie C - Good Enough

TRACK REVIEW:

Melanie C

Good Enough

8.9/10

The track, Good Enough, is available from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bw4s9qXNgQ8

The album, Melanie C, is available via:

https://melaniec.net/

RELEASE DATE:

2nd October, 2020

GENRE:

Pop

ORIGIN:

London, U.K.

PRODUCERS:

Billen Ted/Future Cut/Paul O'Duffy/One Bit/George Reid/Biff Stannard/Ten Ven

LABEL:

Red Girl Media

TRACKLIST:

Who I Am

Blame It on Me

Good Enough

Escape

Overload

Fearless (ft. Nadia Rose)

Here I Am

Nowhere to Run

In and Out of Love

End of Everything

__________

AS it is a rainy day and…

we will want to stay in and keep warm, I think it is a perfect time to listen to music and find some escape there. Some terrific music has been released in 2020, and I think it is a year where artists have really hit a new level. There has been so much variety and quality and, every week, it is a chance to discover some tremendous new albums! With her Melanie C album out in the world, it gives me a chance to write about the amazing Melanie C herself. I like how there has been this gradual change regarding her name. Many of us know Melanie C as Mel C of the Spice Girls – she was dubbed ‘Sporty Spice’. Real name Melanie Chisholm, there has been this slight change that seems more grown up; calling herself ‘Melanie’ seems to indicate that she has entered a new phase of life and wants to be seen differently as an artist. Her eponymous album is, perhaps, her most personal to date, and there are so many terrific tracks to be found. I will be reviewing Good Enough later but, before then, I wanted to cover off a few things. As I shall explore in a minute, Melanie C is this inspirational and strong voice - almost twenty-five years since the Spice Girls broke through with Wannabe. A source of strength and direction for so many people out there, it would be hard for some artists to step aside from a popular band and not only make it on their own but to sound relevant and powerful as a solo artist. I want to explore this more a bit soon. I would encourage people to go and buy Melanie C, as there are some really cool bundles available on her official website. I like how there is a choice of vinyl, C.D., and cassette, and that we get such range. At a moment where streaming seems more convenient and accessible, artists are still going to so much trouble to give us a great physical experience! Melanie C is an album that will sound incredible on vinyl, so people should go and do that.

PHOTO CREDIT: Conor Clinch

I like how there is this preservation of cassettes and artists like Melanie C are putting their albums out on this format. That is a great retro touch and, whilst Melanie C would have seen some of Spice Girls’ albums put out on cassette back in the 1990s, I think C.D.s had pretty much taken over by then. I still maintain that an album sounds better on physical formats, and you get something more tangible and warmer. One can hold the album in their hand and, when playing it, get this experience they would not be able to enjoy on digital platforms. I am sort of going off on a bit of a tangent, but I wanted to raise the point of physical albums and how there is this demand and boom. Rather than put Melanie C out on Spotify and C.D., there are other great options and bundles that her fans can enjoy. Before moving to the present and looking at Melanie C as a solo artist, of course, we cannot ignore the Spice Girls. The group are still together – and they toured last year – and I am not sure whether there are plans to record new music. Certainly, as Melanie C, Mel B, Emma Bunton, and Geri Horner have recorded solo albums since the group split up, and they have matured as artists, the music they would produce now as a band would be very different to what we heard back in the ‘90s. It is hard coming back after that time with an album, as there is so much expectation; critics will judge the Spice Girls against what came before, and the challenge would be to sound current and genuine but also retain some of that classic sound. Being in a successful girlband of the 1990s must have been a dream, as it was such a fervent, exciting, and rich time for music. There was so much wonderful music around, and it would have been a dream on some level.

Most of us would be unaware of the pressure the Spice Girls faced…and Melanie C was not immune. Although the group existed as a five-piece for less than two years, it was an intense time; Melanie C – perhaps trying to keep her ‘Sporty Spice’ moniker true – was eating very healthily and hitting the gym hard. That may sound sensible, but she was reluctant to relax, socialise and indulge, maybe feeling that she needed to be ultra-disciplined and strict. When she spoke with The Guardian late last year, she discussed that time and how she coped:

“She says they were well cared for. The problem was, she didn’t want to be looked after. “I was a grownup, thank you very much,” she says. Instead, she entered “survival mode”, spending three hours a day in the gym, subsisting on fruit and steamed vegetables. “My life was out of control and the only thing I could control was how much I ate and how much I exercised,” she says. “One of my biggest regrets is that there were years when I wouldn’t socialise because I didn’t want to eat in front of people. I just think: ‘Cor, what a waste of life.’”

The Spice Girls’ ubiquity obscures the fact that they only existed as the original five-piece for 22 months, with Geri quitting in May 1998. The other four slogged on through two more tours. Chisholm says it couldn’t have lasted much longer. “We destroyed ourselves,” she says. “We were exhausted, we were homesick.” They never formally split – which, I tell her, was torture for a 10-year-old with a blind faith that they would return. She laughs, apologetically. They never announced the end, because they couldn’t be bothered with the press interest. “We were burying our heads in the sand. And, to be a bit of a wanker, you’re always a Spice Girl; it never stops”.

There is still that appetite for the Spice Girls whereas some of their contemporaries – like All Saints, and TLC -, perhaps, do not court the same sort of media focus and speculation regarding new music. The level of fame and hysteria that afforded the Spice Girls was pretty mad!

PHOTO CREDIT: Anthony Harvey/Rex/Shutterstock

Now, there is a new generation that are discovering their music and, as solo artists and as part of the group, the members are still influencing and acting as role models. It is hard to say what is next for the Spice Girls, but Melanie C is definitely embracing her solo career and she is more determined and motivated than ever. I want to return to that interview with The Guardian, where Melanie C talked about the reunion tour of last year, and why her eponymous album is especially important:

“While she says – contrary to comments from Mel B and Emma – there won’t be new music, Chisholm would love to do more shows, playing territories the band never visited. “I’d do it at the drop of a hat,” she says. I tell her that the Guardian rarely reports on rumoured reunions, but that we often make an exception for the Spice Girls owing to the mania around their existence. Why are we still so obsessed by them? She laughs. “It was quite unusual for a female band to be that successful – and not only successful musically; it was a very cultural movement.” Plus, we are living in a period of nostalgia for 90s Britain. “British music was ruling the world. Even politically, things were on the up. Or we thought so.” And the Spice Girls, she says, are like an ongoing soap opera.

The response to this year’s tour – and admiration from a generation of young artists including Billie Eilish – renewed Chisholm’s solo ambitions. Her previous albums flew under the radar, but the partnership with Sink the Pink and the hiring of a snazzy new PR company suggest someone who wants to make a bit of a splash again. She agrees. When her manager of 18 years retired, Chisholm realised she wanted to speed up. She hired a new team, who gave her a “kick up the bum”, and sought out exciting young writers and producers, which she says has produced a high strike rate of good material”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Daniel Nadel

Returning to the subject of that band pressure and what it must have been like in those early days, and I think we get an impression that it was all care-free and wonderful. The adulation and opportunities would have been amazing, but there would have been such tight and rigorous demands placed on the group; very little time to unwind and this weird sort of numbness and detachment – as Melanie C and the others would not have been seen as normal or allowed to live a conventional life. Maybe things are different now – as we do not really have huge groups like the Spice Girls (maybe BLACKPINK, BTS, and Little Mix are exceptions) -, but it must have been a rather odd and head-spinning time for a young woman like Melanie Chisholm. If she did not feel comfortable or right speaking about her experiences and troubles when she was at the peak of her powers, she has looked back now and talked about those times. When she spoke with The Standard this year, Melanie C revealed what it was like being in the world’s most-famous group:

“It’s heartwarming that these days she feels qualified to dispense advice, given that she has spoken about suffering from depression and anorexia during the pressure-cooker days of the girl group. Those nicknames (imposed by Top of the Pops magazine rather than chosen) and personalities boiled down to a single trait (the pouty one, the cute one, the one who sticks her tongue out, the backflipping one, etc) helped them to translate internationally but also made them superstars ridiculously quickly. There was one year and 11 months between the release of debut single Wannabe and the departure of Geri Halliwell from the group, with two albums and Spice World: The Movie in between.

“When you’re young, if you’re lucky enough to have that level of success, the workload is insane. You don’t know your arse from your elbow. It is literally survival mode,” she says. “It wasn’t about not enjoying the work, but it was more difficult behind the scenes, dealing with being in the public eye and the dynamic of the band”.

I do not want to hang too closely to the Spice Girls and focus on the band, but I know it is important to Melanie C, and that time impacted how she approached her solo work. It must have been a weird and scary proposition stepping away from such a well-known group and launching a solo album. I remember when Melanie C’s first solo album, Northern Star, arrived in 1999, and the sort of expectation there would have been. That album is more musically diverse than any Spice Girls record and, as it might have been harder for her to stamp out her individuality and true voice on a Spice Girls album – as we have five different personalities alongside one another -, going solo afforded her that opportunity. In an interview with GQ from this year, Melanie C spoke about emerging from the group and stepping out alone:

“How did she take to being a solo artist at first, coming out of the cocoon of a juggernaut like the Spice Girls? “When I think about the girls, what we were like, there are some big personalities there! And I was probably one of the quieter members of the band – although I still love a chat. Once I went solo, and I was still only 25 at that point, I wanted to be seen as an individual and I did things in order to distance myself from the group, perhaps. I became a bit rebellious: I cut my hair, put out a single that was a bit rockier…”

There are a few other topics that I want to broach and explore before moving to review a track from the Melanie C album. Again, not to labour a point too much, but Melanie C is now talking about being in the Spice Girls and the fact that she had an eating disorder and lived with stress and depression.

There are artists today will idolise Melanie C, and they might feel that her experience in the music industry in the 1990s was a lot easier, and life in a major group would have been far simpler than being a big artist today. Melanie C is in a happier and healthier space now, but so much of being in a group would have been about image and being more part of a machine, rather than being natural. Tabloid pressure and stories would have had an effect on Melanie C, and it is heartbreaking thinking about what each member of the Spice Girls would have experienced and what toll everything took on them. In an interview with Glamour from this year, Melanie C was asked about projecting that image of Sporty Spice, and what impact that had on body image and confidence:

“Can you remember a time when you were trying to be this ‘perfect’ image of yourself?

I think probably the early days in the band with the girls in the mid-90s. There were lots of different events that led to this, but I think one of the big things was being in the public eye and reading about yourself in the tabloid media, because nothing prepares you for that. And when you're reading about yourself it's like reading about a stranger, because we all meet people and we all have opinions on people, but you're not used to knowing everybody's opinion about you. It was very odd to read about yourself and think, "Who's that?" And I think that's what wobbled me quite a lot.

Did being Sporty Spice put a pressure on your body image, in a way you didn’t expect?

Do you know, I don't know with that because I grew up dancing and doing gymnastics and when I was a kid, I was so active, and I never even thought about body image. I went to performing arts college and I was actually quite close to some people with eating disorders and I know a lot of dancers, a lot of people in that environment. It's very difficult. Obviously, you look at yourself in the mirror all day and, I mean, I'm sure things are a little bit different now and I know the modelling world is the same, but you're told to lose weight. There's a certain way you're expected to look in that profession and it never affected me. That was through my late teens and it wasn't until the Spice Girls really took off that I became very self-conscious about the way that I looked.

PHOTO CREDIT: Chris McAndrew/Camera Press

That's when I was exercising obsessively and I wasn't eating properly, I lost a lot of weight and I was living in an unsustainable and unhealthy way for a couple of years. When you're young and you leave home, you start eating a bit of rubbish and going in the pub and having a drink and all of that. But I never had an extreme, I never dealt with any of that in an extreme way until what happened, happened. I think a lot of that was due to just how crazy the whole situation was”.

Moving onto a really positive aspect, and Melanie C is a champion of the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community. I think she is not only giving strength and important comfort to anyone who, like her, has experienced an eating disorder and dealt with stress and depression, but Melanie C is giving her voice to the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community. Being an ally is very important to her, and it is another reason why I wanted to highlight Melanie C. Not only is she an artist who continues to grow and release amazing material, but she is among a selection of artists who use their platform to bring about change and raise awareness about issues they are passionate about. When she spoke to Glamour, Melanie C explained why it is important to lend her support to the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community:

“One of the amazing things you have done recently is champion the LGBTQ+ community, especially when you toured with Sink The Pink. What have you learned about being an ally?

I learned so much. When I toured with Sink The Pink last year, we went and toured the Prides all over the world and it was straight off the back of the Spice Girls tour. I literally did three sell-out shows at Wembley and three days later I was on a plane to Sao Paulo and then I was on a float going down Paulista Avenue with over 3 million people on the street. It was insane and it was brilliant. The Spice Girls have always had an incredible support from the LGBTQ+ community and we've always appreciated that, but I've never worked that closely with people from that community.

I'm super proud to be an ally. I feel more than an ally. I feel like I am part of that community and the reason why is because I was working with drag queens, non-binary people and working alongside them, learning their stories and the challenges that they faced growing up has just helped me to accept myself again on another level entirely. I just feel like last year it was such an important year for me. With the Spice shows, kind of everything came full circle. And then I knew I'd have fun with Sink The Pink and touring Prides, but I didn't realise the profound effect it would have on me”.

Many might associate the Spice Girls with Girl Power, and that mantra and slogan that was everyone when the group came through. It gave identity and strength to a lot of girls and young women and, whilst some see it as a bit phoney and meaningless, it was very motivating for a great number of people. Not only is Melanie C a supporter of the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community, but she is keen to support trans people. In an NME interview, she explained why Girl Power extends to them:

“When asked if it’s important to her that “Girl Power” extends to trans people, she answered: “Absolutely. We’ve always talked about Girl Power being about equality – and it’s equality for all. Like Black Lives Matter, it’s about education.

PHOTO CREDIT: Daniel Nadel

“We’re afraid of the things we don’t understand and that’s where prejudice comes from, so I’m very proud to be an ally to the trans community.

She added: “The great thing I learned working with non-binary people [during her 2019 Global Pride Tour with Sink The Pink] is to see people as people and not as a gender which is really hard because we’re conditioned”.

I think 2020 is a year where we are seeing the real Melanie C. Maybe there was a reluctance to open up prior to now, but now she is speaking out - and we get to see more of this amazing artist. I am just about to move to reviewing Good Enough, but I was struck by an interview from The Times recently, where Melanie C discussed a BBC performance – and a rare chance for people to see inside her home:

“In July, from her home studio strewn with blankets and fairy lights, she collaborated with the BBC Concert Orchestra for Radio 2’s House Music, performing spine-tingling, rearranged versions of the Spice Girls’ Say You’ll Be There and her latest single, Blame It on Me, which spent a month on the station’s A-list.

“Letting people see my home felt weird at first,” Chisholm says. “I’m a very private person, but lockdown loosened me up. That shared experience of everyone in isolation made any sense of pretence seem ridiculous.

“I’ve spoken a lot in the past about my battles with depression and it really helped me hearing from fans trying to make sense of the same situation. Their stories compelled me to reach out. To my great surprise I loved being so open and allowing people to see the real me”.

I think Good Enough is a song that has potential to be a great single – and I could imagine a pretty good video to go alongside it! It opens with some darker tones and electronics that remind me a bit of Billie Eilish (I will mention her at the end, as she is a big fan of Melanie C). Rather than perhaps the lighter and punchier sound of some of her earliest work, there is a seriousness and sense of mood with Good Enough. That might suggest that Sporty Spice has become Sluggish Spice but, actually, a more mature and darker sound is a great development; I think the sound is more contemporary and the tracks on Melanie C are more affecting and nuanced than a lot of her previous albums. There is a nice mixture of lightness and weight to Melanie C’s voice. There is a sweetness and tenderness, but there is also a sense of doubt and emotion. The lyrics are direct and simple, and many can relate to the sentiments and feelings of the first verse: “It could be easy but you're making it so hard/You keep on calling but I don't wanna pick up/We both know what you're gonna say/You're gonna make it so complicated when it could be easy but you're making it hard”. In terms of what is being laid down, I think it is a story of a relationship facing the rocks, rather than it being more directed at the wider world and the sense of expectation that Melanie C must still feel; perhaps a look at how she is more confident as a woman and artist, and for people to stop comparing her music of now to the past. Maybe there is a feeling that, perhaps, there is another layer to be found, but it seems that matters of the heart are at the forefront. The energy level soon notches upwards, and the beats and electronic swell. There is almost a Dance and Disco feeling in the song; maybe a sad-banger type of dancefloor vibe!

PHOTO CREDIT: Conor Clinch

Our heroine explains that her sweetheart/this other person is trying to fix something that isn’t broken, and there is this pressure. Maybe her lover wants things to be better and is trying to fix things, but they are fine as they are. The two are in different places, and it seems like it will be hard to bring about a resolution and find some common ground. The song shifts another gear and there is this explosion and energy unleashed in the composition. Melanie C delivers lines with heavy breath and a sense of exasperation, as she tries to come to terms with a frustrating experience. In the chorus, she explains how, if there seems to be room for improvement when things are fine, then things look bleak: “Good Enough, Good Enough/Now you're losing control/Oh, there's nowhere to go/When nothing's good enough/Good Enough oooh oh/Good Enough oooh oh/If I leave you behind, I believe I will find/Something good enough”. At a juncture where our heroine wants some support and she is looking for answers, it seems like she must do so alone. Being with someone else seems like a better move, as the bond she is in now seems to be quite imbalanced and rough. That lack of understanding and connection can be felt in the song and the vocal performance. Although the composition has a lot of drive and rush, our heroine is trying to find her way forward. There is a line that makes me feel that she is not willing to pack things in just yet: “You're not making easy, but I'm not gonna give up”. Although there might be an easier and better relationship available, you get the feeling that there is a lot of history between the two. By the time the song ends, there is a real feeling that Melanie C has got a lot off her chest, but you wonder what comes next. Good Enough is my favourite song from the album, and one that I have returned to quite a bit.

There are some gig dates in the diary and, whilst plans might change, it will be an opportunity for people around the world to see Melanie C play and to hear first-hand songs from her new album. So long after the Spice Girls exploded into the world, one of its members is out there and producing incredible music. I think Melanie C is one of her most varied and personal albums, and there are no signs to suggest that she is slowing down any time soon! Not only has Melanie C got fans of the Spice Girls behind her, but she is also resonating with some huge artists of today. One (perhaps unlikely) superfan of Melanie C is Billie Eilish. Eilish was born in 2001, so she did not hear any Spice Girls albums the first time around – the last single the group released was in 2000 -, but she would have grown up listening to a lot of their music, and she would have connected and related with so many of the tracks. Although Eilish’s music is very different to that of the Spice Girls, it must be very moving for Melanie C to realise that one of the world’s biggest artists holds her group in such high esteem. She spoke with GQ about having Eilish as a fan and what it was like meeting her:

“One superfan who feels all Melanie’s vibrations is none other than Billie Eilish, British GQ’s summer cover star and self-confessed Spice Girl fanatic (as is Eilish's entire family we’ve heard, not least her father). The “My Future” singer might be keen to know her adoration is fully reciprocated. “I am such a big fan of Billie. And her brother Finneas. I saw her play Shepherd's Bush Empire a few years ago and she had already outgrown that venue.

“To hear her fans screaming every word of every song – and not teenage girls screaming for boys, but girls screaming for girls – it was beautiful. I just felt something so familiar, something similar I experienced with the Spice Girls. We met backstage that night and I felt a connection. Billie is wise beyond her years. To have Billie Eilish as a young role model is really refreshing. She’s what the world needs right now. I’ve been itching to hear what she’s going to do next.” No doubt the feeling is mutual; Sporty Spice stans Billie, Billie stans Sporty Spice. It's a transatlantic, cross-generational, multi-genre musical love-in. And we approve”.

I think Melanie C is an important album, as it feels like she is accepting herself fully for the first time, and we get to hear the real Melanie C. Returning to that interview with The Times, and she talked about how she has moved on and why her eighth studio album is her most important:

“Since 2018 Chisholm has been a DJ-for-hire, playing corporate events, private parties and festivals. Unlike a lot of her celebrity peers, she doesn’t just stand behind the decks, waving her arms in the air.

“I could never do that,” she says. “I’m a total tech nerd. I’d always fancied giving DJing a go, but I thought maybe I’m too old to learn a new skill. From lesson one I was obsessed … I don’t go clubbing any more, but as a DJ I can dance and I don’t have a hangover the next day.”

Despite the young collaborators, Melanie C is a grown-up album with an obvious theme of self-acceptance. Its first single, Who I Am, was initially conceived as a swipe at the other Spices. Or as Chisholm more delicately described it last year: “It’s about certain people who are happy for me to be — how shall I put this? — in my place.” Now she insists it’s about herself more than anyone else.

“In the past perhaps I haven’t wanted to upset the apple cart,” she says. “And that suited some of the people around me. But one of the great things about getting older is that you have the courage to care less. The whole album is saying, ‘This is who I am, take it or leave it.’ That apple cart? I’m finally up for kicking it over”.

Go and get a copy of Melanie C – or go and stream it -, as it is always great having her music out there. I am not sure what the next year ore two holds for her, but I am sure she will want to tour as much as she safely can, and her eponymous album seems like this new phase; future albums, I anticipate, will follow a similar lyrical and sonic path to that of Melanie C. It is wonderful to see that, after all these years, this northern star still…