Mikey (Gillingham, Kent. UK) - Each week I preview an album which I think deserves a listen to and if it's worth to buy, I will cater for all tastes of music from R'n'B to Rock, Hip hop and Pop.
Emma - Free Me
Release Date: 9 February 2004
The year was 1996 and my life was happily rolling along as a kid does. Then along came a big bus that not only changed my life but also significantly changed the face of pop music. Of course that bus was the one that carried The Spice Girls, and introduced Posh, Scary, Ginger, Sporty and Baby.
It was Ms Bunton that attracted me. She was probably my first pop star crush and yes; I did actually like the Spice Girls' music. However things have changed - I've grown up and so have the girls. Baby, sorry Emma, waited a while before releasing her first solo album A Girl Like Me just about two years ago and now it's time for Free Me.
Following her massive success in 2003 with her brilliant singles Free Me and Maybe and her 2004 smash I'll Be There everyone's favourite former Spice Girl releases her highly anticipated album entitled Free Me. It's a pity that the rest of the album contrives to move into cliched, formulaic territory with strings and brass continually to the fore. Whereas in the hands of the great singers of the era like Dusty Springfield, the songs would have flown, here they just sound like pale facsimiles. Recorded throughout 2003 in the UK and Spain, 'Free Me' is a diverse, energetic album that oozes sophistication. A marked maturity of sound is featured on this record which Emma herself describes as having, "a real 60's influence". She's now being posited as a sex kitten circa mid-60s Carnaby Street. Everything about "Free Me" has been carefully designed to reflect this, from Emma's Mary Quant-style outfits and the period-style "Stereo" symbol on the album sleeve to the music itself.
Is Emma Bunton trapped by something or someone, as the title would suggest? Unfortunately I can't answer that one but I'd hazard a guess at yes. From the opener and title-track Free Me there is a clear sense of broken-heartedness in Emma and a confusing paradox of a will to be freed counterbalanced with lines like "let me love you".
This isn't restricted to just one or two songs but is a continuing theme, in the likes of Amazing, You Are and she redeems herself somewhat with a much brassier performance on the John Barryesque ballad No Sign Of Life, particularly in the opening line: "I wake up crying and I think of you."
Breathing reveals a bit of a kinky side to Emma although it's very well disguised in the overly dramatic music backdrop (which incidentally is just about the same in every song). The chorus shows a side to her that I'm not sure we've seen before: "Constant feeling of pleasure. Why does it feel so good?"
Away from the somewhat cathartic songs there is a little bit of variation. Maybe and Crickets Sing For Anamaria (possibly the best song title in the world!) that shows that sometimes it's best not to stray from the territory you know well. A passable Brazilian samba, complete with whistles and massed percussion, is ruined by Bunton's cod-Spanish delivery.
Who The Hell Are You is a wimpier cousin of the Spices' Who Do You Think You Are', but of course with the ubiquitous string flourishes, is a pretty decent track, comparable to an Enya song played at double speed. There's even a little hint of Emma's versatility with Lay Your Love On Me, which would be well placed as background music for Sex And The City. It's a strong runner for Free Me's standout track, and possibility as her next single and there's even a little bit of Britney about it. Things predictably slow down towards the end of the album, to the closing tearjerker Something So Beautiful.
"Uplifting, vibrant and almost sickeningly pretty, I'll Be There is just the right track to exorcise the demons of January," is what I wrote of Emma's current single. The album is much in the same vein. On one track that's good but across 12 songs I'm not so sure.
Free Me isn't spectacular, and it isn't too far detached from the mellower Spice Girls songs. It seems I've grown up a lot more in eight years than Emma's music has, and is Emma's most accomplished achievement to date. So a great pop album this isn't, but it should serve as a useful audition piece for a career in West End musicals.
6/10
Tracklisting
1. Free Me
2. Maybe
3. I'll Be There
4. Tomorrow
5. Breathing
6. Crickets Sing For Anamaria
7. No Sign Of Life
8. Who The Hell Are You
9. Lay Your Love On Me
10. Amazing feat Luis Fonsi
11. You Are
12. Something So Beautiful
