Dancing queen Mel has found her beat
Melanie C: Melanie C
(Red Girl)
DANCE music was uncharted terrain for Sporty Spice – and to some she’ll always be Sporty Spice – until she took DJ-ing lessons after releasing her last album in 2016.
She’s since played clubs and London Fashion Week, and the experience (interrupted only by last year’s Spice Girls’ stadium tour) guided the direction of her eighth solo LP. In other words, forget Melanie’s usual sturdy alt-pop – it’s all danceable bangers now.
And it suits her. If this is the singer’s strongest record by some way, it’s because she’s found the sweet spot between her pop-rock comfort zone and hard club sounds. It’s still her – all belting vocals and anxious selfexamination – but with beats. And it’s hard to believe the difference these beats make.
Thrumming buildups, explosive choruses, thunderous drops: against this immersive backdrop, Melanie’s performance is fresh and authoritative. Opening track Who I Am explains the life change that replenished her energy: ‘When I look in the mirror/I finally like what I see/There’s been so many changes/I accept they’re a part of me.’ As a lyricist, she inclines toward motivational homilies, but it’s allowable – many of these songs deal with finding a way through long-term depression and anxiety, so who am I to tell her how to write about it? Whether frothing up disco bubbles on the delightful In And Out Of Love, recreating a panic attack on Nowhere To Run or swapping verses with Croydon rapper Nadia ‘Nastiest’ Rose on Fearless (talk about Girl Power redux) this album shows a mature artist hitting her stride.