It’s ironic that the keeper of the Spice Girl flame was the first person to leave the band. Geri Halliwell’s solo career has been forged out of the same winning mix of camp, infectious, poptastic tunes with a healthy smattering of caricatured personality-led performances that was the key to the success of the ultimate girl band. As the others have tried and struggled to embrace careers as credible solo artists, Geri has never overreached herself and has had a string of feel-good, lightweight pop hits to prove it.
Geri’s third solo album, Passion, is something of a turning point. Always the canniest of the five, Geri has put together an album that has plenty of familiar disco anthems, but also subtly begins to explore new, more mature territory.
The album opener and title track is not likely to frighten the horses or her record company’s A & R men. Geri simmers and shimmies her way through a bouncy light jazz track that recalls Madonna’s cartoony Dick Tracy period. Playing the role of vamp chanteuse to the hilt, Geri establishes that she is first and foremost an entertainer.
The single, ‘Desire’, ups the tempo of the album if not the temperature. It’s a far more sophisticated and contemporary arrangement than we’re used to from Disco Geri and the lack of cheese perhaps suggests a new dairy-free diet from La Halliwell.
More impressive still is the full-on dancefloor scorcher, ‘Love Never Loved Me’. If only we had Geri flying the flag with this ditty at the Eurovision rather than Javine’s unmemorable effort, the UK would never have languished at the foot of the contest’s league table. It’s has a great combination of swooning strings, relentless dance beats and a couple of kitchen sinks. However, what does surprise is Geri’s much-improved vocal ability.
By the time the chorus has kicked in, ‘Feel The Fear’ has already conjured up reminiscences of a Spice Girl ballad – the kind laced with a Spanish guitar in which Emma Bunton would have taken the lead vocals; this is certainly a track for nostalgia fans.
There’s no question that without the Spice Girls there wouldn’t have been Girls Aloud. So it seems only fair that Geri has purloined the catchy, stomping chorus her musical descendants do so well for ‘Superstar’. Whilst inoffensive, it doesn’t hit the mark as effectively as ‘Ride It’. This first single off the album is trademark Halliwell: higher energy than the Southern Electric board provides and catchier than a bout of bird flu. You gotta love her!
‘There’s Always Tomorrow’ on the other hand has more depth. The gentle Samba rhythm and airy vocals evoke warm summer evenings enveloping the lovelorn. Like a poppier Babel Gilberto, this is an album highlight that showcases the potential for Geri to transcend her manufactured roots.
A similarly acoustic-based track, ‘Let Me Love You More’, unveils a gentler, subtler Halliwell – like a natural solo progression musically from the Spice Girls’ ‘Viva Forever’, this ballad will melt stony hearts.
Whilst Passion is impressively melodic, there is a noticeable lyrical weakness. Aside from Geri’s inclination to evangelise various self help affirmations at the drop of a therapist couch, the album rarely manages more sophisticated rhyming than “Faces” with “Places”, “Ritchie” with” Bitchy”. This is a shame, as you’d expect more expression from the architect and chief articulator of Girl Power.
Her razzle-dazzle ‘em instincts reach fruition with the hilarious, no-one-but-Geri, cabaret-circuit, swing number. From her spoken “Ladies and Gentleman” introduction to the big band hysterics, this is Ginger Spice’s finest, brassiest hour.
But, with Geri’s more subtle material emerging on Passion, will this be the last hurrah of our fave Spice?
Originally published 6th June 2005
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