Without a doubt 2007 has become the year of music comebacks and reunions. Van Halen. The Police. Smashing Pumpkins. Happy Mondays. Britney Spears. And of course,
The Spice Girls
. While outfits like The Police, VH, and The Pumpkins eschewed dropping "Greatest Hits" or "Best Of" collections timed into their reunion tours, The Spice Girls opted to go full-tilt, delivering no less that several different "exclusive" versions of the same album. While the nut of the collection is the same, built around 13 of the femme fatale of pop outfit's more recognizable chart topping hits, the "exclusive" variants toss in different bonus tracks (for example there's a Victoria's Secret version with 3 extra tracks that differ from the bonus tracks found on the iTunes download).
Exclusive versions aside (our review, for the record, is based on the iTunes version),
Spice Girls: Greatest Hits
is pretty much what you would expect it to be. Naturally, if you're already a devout member of the Girl Power movement, then you no doubt already own the quintet's three official albums--
Spice
from 1996;
Spiceworld
from 1997
;
Forever
from 2000. But if you don't then this collection will save you some $$, providing you want to stock up on SG hits.
Surprisingly bouncy hits like "Wannabe" still sound reasonably fresh even 10 years after they first hit. The production is snappy, the vocalistics crisp and playful, riding that line between classic pop and muted hip-hop bravado with bubblegum smackingness. The album rolls from swanky funk lite to power ballad supremacy with easy aplomb. The Girls obvious influences riding high on their sleeves (Motown, Madonna, Abba, Michael Jackson, etc) with playful intensity. In terms of set-up the album is delivered more or less in linear fashion, compiling the hits in the order that they were released. Tracks 1 through 5 are culled from
Spice
, tracks 6 through 10 from
Spiceworld
, and tracks 11, 12, and 15 from
Forever
.
Sandwiched in-between the previously released songs are two new numbers, "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)" and "Voodoo." The first is a quiet ballad that is built around acoustic guitar, syncopated rhythms, and lilting croon-styled vocals. It pretty much fits the mold of the Girls previous outings of this down tempo variety ("2 Become 1" and "Viva Forever" for example). If it hadn't been singled out as a new track you'd easily swear that it was a "lost" B-side from one of their previous albums. "Voodoo" goes for the party swing with bumping beats and vocal swagger. It's typical SG material, drawing heavily upon '80s styled studio funk and electro shock. It's infectious in an innocuous manner, a fleeting slice of sugar coated slink that will shake your rumpus and be forgotten just as fast. Again if not designated as a new track it could easily have been mistaken as a studio outtake from 10 years prior.
In addition to the two new tracks there's three bonus remixes from Junior Vasquez and Jonathon Peters. The first is "Wannabe (Junior Vasquez Gomis Dub)," which injects the original with space age electro blippage, super-charged hand claps, and sexually propulsive vocal accents. It also boosts the running time by a good 4-minutes, turning the original into a sweaty club jam that owes quite a bit to Madonna. Jonathan Peters serves up "Tell Me Why (Jonathan Peters Edit)" which is infinitely colder in terms of the detached electronic embellishment. Finally there's "Say You'll Be There (Junior's X-Beats)[2007 Edit]." Pumped up on amphetamine charged electronic drums and cascading mock industrial rumble the track turns the original into a boosted energy infraction.
For those who already own the Spice Girls three full-length albums then this collection is rather redundant. For those who may have shrugged off the brief reign of the group and their quick and fleeting dominance of the pop spectrum back in the late '90s, this is a wonderfully kitschy collection that provides a smile inducing flashback. Essential? Not really. Fun in that self-referential "I'm too cool for pop smear" way? Definitely.
Download Worthy:
1. "Wannabe"
2. "Move Over"
3. "Spice Up Your Life"
4. "Stop"
5. "Voodoo"