Northern Star

by

Melanie C

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I'm a US-based middle-aged male who (quite sheepishly) can name all five Spice Girls. Chalk it up to pop culture awareness rather than anything musical. I never really cared for their tunes. However, I got hooked on the soundtrack to "Bend It Like Beckham" and I was struck by Mel C's excellent contribution to that effort, "Independence Day" (especially when compared to ex-bandmate's Victoria Beckhams's "I Wish," included only probably as a quid pro quo favor for getting husband David's name up on the marquee).

You can't find "Independence Day" on any Mel C stateside album (or import for that matter), but given her reputation as "the only Spice Girl that can acutally sing," I thought it was worth the effort to track down one of the erstwhile Sporty Spice's solo efforts. This import version of 'Northern Star' is worth seeking out. It's widely acclaimed as the best post-Spice Girls outing.

Okay, that's not exactly like comparing Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison's post-breakup efforts, but still - 'Northern Star' stands on its own merits. Favorites are leadoff tune "Go!," dance club fav "I Turn to You," and Garbage-influenced (as noted elsewhere) "Ga Ga." One complaint - echoed elsewhere on these pages - is that the mix of styles is *so* diverse (Mel's desire to please, I guess), that someone's bound to be disappointed along the way. For example, fans drawn to "I Turn to You" will do their utmost to skip the ballady title track and the handful of others like it.

All in all, a very good effort.

I got this c.d. on the basis that I really liked Melanie C's. single I Turn To You and to be honest I wasn't really expecting great things from this c.d.I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of high quality and catchy songs there are!

The whole c.d. sounds pretty disimilar to music you'd expect from a Spice Girl.She seems to be trying to appeal to people who may have liked Alannis M. and a rockier version of say Natalie Imbruglia.She certainly seems to have the talent to write hit singles as she has writing credits on each of the 12 tracks(not counting the 2 remixes of course).Of course getting such production and co-writing guru's as William Orbit,Rhett Lawrence and most importantly Rick Nowells has certainly helped.Nowells features on the quartet of hit singles featured on this album.Each of these songs are pretty standard M.O.R. but I find them to be really catchy and Mel certainly seems to have great ability to write songs with great verses leading up to the killer chorus.There is also no doubt that she is an excellent vocalist with her own very distinctive style.My favourite songs would have to be I Turn To You,If That Were Me and of course Never Be The Same Again with the marvellous Lisa "Left-Eye" Lopes appearing to give a helping hand.

The songs do attempt to rock,but never too loudly and you always get the feeling she is keeping an eye on the commercial side of music.In fairness to her the best songs are the ones that are most commercial and don't attempt to be too heavy. This c.d. is certainly worth buying if you're fans of the artists listed earlier.The Spice Girls it ain't-and actually as soon as you hear this you'll soon spot who was the most talented of those girls!Just hope she drops the "Sporty" nickname!