REVIEW: Free Me

Emma Bunton
Free Me
© 2004 Polydor.
www.emmabuntonofficial.com/

The problems with some albums are painfully obvious on first listen. See the previous review (Warriors of the World) for an example. With other albums, the trouble is more general. Such is the case with Free Me, Emma “Baby Spice” Bunton’s second solo album.


On Free Me, the former Spice Girl has attempted to set herself apart from the crowded UK Pop scene by harkening back to an earlier Pop heyday. Her recipe borrows heavily from the Motown cookbook, throws in a few exotic spices, and mixes that into a stable base of contemporary pop. An intriguing combination except that—to extend the metaphor—instead of allowing the ingredients to slowly simmer and blend into each other, she pressure-cooks. The result is a bland paste, not satisfying enough for seconds, but not so displeasing that you need to slip it to the dog when nobody is looking.

Having taken that metaphor farther than I should’ve, on to specifics.

In an almost absurd display of radio-friendly album structure, the first three tracks of the album are the album’s first three singles, in the same order they hit the airwaves. And it is these three songs that demonstrate the album’s problems most clearly. “Free Me,” the title track and lead single, in particular stands as a microcosm for all that is good and bad in this album. On the good we have a clear showing of the neoMotown sound, a concise chorus, and a beat equally suited for dancing or listening. On the bad, we have a sound that is so polished and cleaned that it has lost all texture. This is particularly a problem for Emma’s voice, which has had any sort of emotion (if there was any to begin with) thoroughly edited and digitized into oblivion.

The album livens up at times, such as her catchy and pleasantly silly take on the Latin Jazz staple “Crickets Sing for Anamaria.” But these moments, where Emma’s voice and the music show a hint of natural roughness, are short-lived, leaving even the better songs as “almosts” rather than successes.

All told, while not an abject failure, Free Me leaves itself with very little to recommend it. It is almost sad as, if it wasn’t overproduced, the concept could have been a success. Assuming, of course, that its star would have been able to do the material justice without aid.

RECCOMENDED IF… you are looking for something inoffensive to play over your grocery store’s PA system.

CD: