Forever

The Pop Success Story of the 90s Return after Taking a Few Years off for Babies and Recovery from the Loss of One Member. Their Sound is More Contemporary R&B as Well as their New Look. Includes the Single 'goodbye' that was their First Recording after the Departure of Gerri Halliwell.

Since we last heard from them, the Spice Girls have hired new producers and writers, hoping to adopt an R&B edge with harder beats and a grittier sound. Gone are the cuddly wannabes of yesteryear, replaced by thinner, tougher glamazons of the new millennium Spice World. But Forever's strategy is a serious misstep--one that will disappoint their old fans and alienate new ones. "Holler," the first single, is standard-issue urban pop, with a beat you've heard before and terribly generic lyrics, promising to make you "do things you thought you would never do." As a matter of fact, you've heard all of this before: for "Tell Me Why," the Girls bite the computer-generated voice from TLC's Fan Mail, and borrow the vocoder from Cher's "Believe" sessions. "Right Back at Ya," their official comeback anthem, is trite and predictable: "Our friendship is forever," Baby Spice testifies. "You thought we wouldn't make it this far," Sporty sneers, and she's right. But they haven't made it yet--and with this material they don't deserve to. --Courtney Kemp