The Official Emma Bunton Thread
 

Many of you may not know of her - either at all or at least by her proper name. Emma Bunton gained fame as the sweet, cute, blonde, innocent Baby Spice in UK supergroup the Spice Girls. Since the group broke up, she's gone on to have a moderately successful solo career in her home country.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Bunton

Shedding her "Baby Spice" image for a more sexy, sohpisticated image, Emma tackled a variety of genres on her solo debut, A Girl Like Me, surprising many with lead single What Took You So Long bearing a more indie rock sound. R&B, folk, and pop were also dominating genres on the album.

Afterwards, she released Free Me to respectable success in the UK, taking on the sounds of Motown and, in general, 60's pop music, which is where her sexier image came into play.

She's set to release her third solo album, Life in Mono, in a few weeks.

Any fans here? Anyone with any thoughts on her? Discuss it all here!

What Took You So Long was a nice song, but I was still very surprised when I heard her second album - I didn't think a Spice Girl solo project would be that good. I loved the 60s sound and the single tracks: Free Me, Maybe, I'll Be There and Crickets Sing for Anamaria. It's a shame the album didn't do better in the US.

I always loved the Spice Girls as a band, so I immediately bought Free Me when I saw it in stores. It really is a surprisingly good album. Maybe and Free Me were my favorite tracks, but there were many others that were competent as well. I haven't heard anything new from her since that album, but I'll probably buy her third if I find it anyways.

DAMN I HATE YOU. I wanted to make this thread too while listening to Downtown yesterday but decided to procrastinate till the next day.

I LOOOVVVEEEE Emma Bunton. She managed to carve out her own sound and experience success, unlike the other Spice Girls. I have Free Me and it's one of the albums I have listened to a billion times in the past 2 years. It's a stunning album with every track gold (except I'll Be There, IMO) and it has a strong atmosphere. It's just one of the best albums in my collection. Lately I have been listening to it again, gearing up for Life In Mono.

Her solo album I haven't seen sold in many shops, gotta get it someday. From there, the one track that amazes me is "Take My Breath Away". It's so simple and serene and heavenly and divine. "What Took You So Long" is so sexy yet independent and definitely a favourite. The Pokemon song was quite good too.

She does have a tendency for dreadful album covers. I detest her pose in Free Me, but Life In Mono takes the cake for the worst expression and angle for an album cover. It makes her look so ugly when she's actually gorgeous.

Her best video I say "Maybe" for the unique choreography and colours used. "Take My Breath Away" is pretty too. However, her best songs for me would be "Free Me", "What Took You So Long", "Take My Breath Away", "Maybe", "You Are", "Something So Beautiful", "Breathing", Crickets Sing For Anamaria".

Her image transition was shocking but it worked so well. She actually suits the sexy siren image. She's more quiet-seductive-sexy than in-your-face sexy, unlike other divas such as Nicole Scherzinger and Mariah Carey.

She did pretty well in the US too, for a dance act, IMO. #183 isn't that bad...

her new song 'downtown' is so boring!

I think I like Peaches "Downtown" better but Emma Bunton is so much better to look at and so is her MV.

I've only heard her Free Me album. Which I loved.

I have only heard one song. You Are. And that was hott. <3

I gotta thank Spacey for that. W00T.

The only song and video I have heard of Emma was Free Me which I was sooo addicted too but I wasn't able to get her album due to the fact I didn't see it in stores.....:grumpy Anyway, it's nice to hear that she's releasing another album though I'm curious about it too.......:)

Worst track in the album too, if you listen to the whole CD. Even many reviews pointed that out. Wait till you listen to the hit single "Maybe".

^ROFLMAO
Ok, now I need to listen to this album, considering I love the album's worst track.

I am looking forward to the new album.It has been such a long wait.

I love You Are too, I don't know what's wrong with it. Anyways, I heard Life in Mono, the song, not the entire album, and I love it. Hopefully the rest of the album is that good.

I just found it pretty nice but most of the reviews I read points at it and go "OMG HIDEOUS TRACK". Maybe it's just Luis Fonsi's accent... But yeah, IMO it's the weakest track on the CD.

Where did you find Life in Mono, Bondingo?! I want!

I love living in Australia

I liked that 'Show me in the shallow water' song, and that 60's style one (Dunno the names).

I'm loving her on Strictly Come dancing. I've been voting her 3 times a week (Louisa twice).

Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mfqoh6EmLdI

Thanks bondingo! :)

EDIT: Wow, it's so beautiful! I already like it a billion times more than Downtown. Both Downtown and Life in Mono are covers though, right?

No problem. I knew that Downtown was a cover, but I don't know if Life In Mono is. That's weird if it is, because then (at least) two covers would be on one album. If it's a cover album (which I don't think it is), then I get it, but otherwise I'd rather see original songs by her.

I read that Life in Mono is a hit song from another one-hit wonder band called Mono. And Downtown is a cover. So yeah, there's at least two covers on the album. I don't usually like covers but Emma's versions are very good. I hope the other stuff are new material though. Her original stuff is pretty brilliant too.

I have loved the spices since they were...well. Spice Girls. I have all their solo material, including Victoria Beckhams unreleased second album"Open Your Eyes". I dont much care for Mel B's music, but the other 4 are very close favs of mine, especially Melanie C and Emma.

OMG, I want "Open your eyes" so much. Lucky lucky you.

That Beckham lady. Ugh, I don't like her because:
a) She has this feud with Sophie Ellis-Bextor, who made me take notice of UK music.
b) Her song "This Groove" beat Sophie's "I Won't Change You" despite sounding quite blah.

I use to hate her. I remember when she deliberaetly releasede her song "Not such an innocent girl" to rival Kylie's "Can't get you out of my head". She also called her a wax work doll. Then Kylie smashed her on the charts. Viki's song only peaked at no. 6 and quickly went down while CGYOOMH was stll number 1.

But I stll am kinda enjoying her music recently and I just found out most of her unreleased material leaked onto the web on Sep 5.

We may need a thread for Vic, although... maybe in a different forum? I dunno, she seems to have stopped singing, THANK GOD (her solo album was okay, but I... just... always hated her), she seems more of a tabloid fixture now, just a random celebrity famous for being famous.

or maybe we should make a Spice girls thread to talk about all the girls solo work.

Not a bad idea! Though... would we have to merge this thread into it or keep it as is? Hmm... I'll make it and we'll play it by ear (I always wanted to say that) from there.

I don't think it really matters if we lose what's in this thread because it will eventualy be lost when it reaches 500 posts in some time. But it is better to have to have a Spice girls thread, it just makes it much easier since it's easy to get off track if you have a thread about just one spice girl.

Yep a Spice Girls thread would be nice. Plus I doubt Emma's thread needs to be merged into it, it's like merging the Gwen Stefani thread into the No Doubt thread.

I just finished downloading the new album...so far, so good! "All I Need To Know" is beautiful, but a little slow to open up an album with.

Damn! I want it so bad but I'm gonna restrict myself for now. I hope it gets released here soon, I'm hoping to get it by the end of the week.

OMG! the leaked ones? do you mind sharing them?

the only song i like from Emma is
What Took You So Long? and the song is still good : )

I downloaded the CD, and listened to some of the tracks so far.

Life In Mono just stands, screams and jumps above all the other tracks, it's perfection.

I love the mood of the album, it's like a very listenable, more commercial, and casual version of Bjork's Vespertine.

I like what I'm hearing so far... a nice combination between Free Me and the more laid-back songs from A Girl Like Me. I love that she's still taking the Motown/bossa nova/60's route with her music. It definitely suits her.

Damn, if this album is as great as the first two, she'll be three for three, her and Mel C both.

Pity though the album is a major commercial flop. So major, it makes Mel C minor. It was shocking and disturbing to see that the album debuted at #65 in the UK charts.

What happened to her audience?! Where are they now?! This is good music, people! Or do we blame publicity like with every good release that gets ignored? Zero fascination left for Spice Girls, possibly? When will people look beyond the Spice label and listen to what's truly in the CD?

I wonder if maybe they were a bit disappointed that this album was Free Me continued almost to a tee.

It may have continued from Free Me, but it doesn't sound completely the same. This one seems to concentrate more on the 60's and Motown elements, taking risks along the way. It doesn't stray away from these two main genres, unlike Free Me which had several moments where it went off the road (Cricket's Sing For Anamaria, Maybe, Who The Hell Are You, You Are) into more commercial and pop regions. Free Me also sounded a whole lot more poppy, dancey and modern.

This album reminds me of Janet sometimes, like All That You'll Be and I Want You's similar feel.

I love the direction Emma's taking with her career, although I'm not sure if she'll go on in this direction if her album keeps on flopping.

ummm... i already listened to Life in Mono Album... and.... i dont like bossa nova at all. theres a popular female singer here in the PH who has similar style and yeah... i dont like her either. oh well...

I need to get that Emma album, I so love the songs from Free Me and the direction is awesome. Such a low chart position!!, pooor thing! It's worse then Geri's last~ I take it this may be her last album too.

I really don't understand the chart positions for any Spice Girl, they always chart low for some reason, and their music isn't horrible. I have a feeling they will never sell like before, unless they regroup ~ But that wont happen for many years. I would love for like 2 of the girls to duet one day, E with G? I think it would be so hot.

Who here really loves A Girl Like Me~ The song?!

It seems Life In Mono was poorly sent to stores. 19 management even released a "sorry" note because of it. It happened in the week of the release, and the distribuition may be normal right now.

Anyway, I prefer the Free Me album, but LIM is really GREAT! I love the song Por Favor, the best one in my opinion. But it's a bonus track anyway lol Life In Mono, Perfect Strangers and I'm Not Crying Over Yesterdays are the best in the album for me.

The bonus tracks are really awesome, but I doubt I will get them because International versions always suck crap.

OMG I have the album, got it tonight, and it's sooooo cute! Perhaps x3 was covered by Geri Halliwell in 2000 and I just love that song! I really enjoy LIM and I hope she has a stellar time promoting it... Emma is so sweet.

i like Geri's version better.... am not a fan of Life in Monoi love her first two albums though.

^^ ok... i take back what i said.. i like Life in Mono now! hahaha. my fav track off of it is Perfect Strangers :)

i think you have to be in love to appreciate her album... coz i am now.. hahahah :)

I bought "Free Me." I really like it!
The album had bonus remixes of "Free Me," which is my favorite track.

^ I believe you bought the US version. Well you do live there. :laugh

I still find Life In Mono totally amazing, unbeatable and godly. He Loves Me Not is quite nice too. Overall though, the CD seems bland to me. Too many tracks, perhaps.. And some of the best tracks are UK-exclusives. :( Phooey.

Free Me isn't released here... crap. i want that CD!!!

but i have to say that am still inlove with Free Me than Life in Mono.

Free Me > A Girl Like Me > Life in Mono