A Girl Like Me

Following in the footsteps of her fellow Spice Girls, Emma Bunton's A Girl Like Me is in keeping with the solo-spice ethic of not making a CD which sounds like your band mates. It is pop but not as you would expect. For the most part it's an easy listening jangley guitar sound with the odd experiment here and there. "World Without You" is reminiscent of the Spice Girls "2 Become 1" whereas "Been There Done That" and "She Was a Friend" sound like they could have been used in the Forever sessions. There are two cover versions; Edie Brickell's "What I Am" which did the rounds in 1999 and a re-working of Zoe's "Sunshine on a Rainy Day", produced in a similar style to that of Madonna ("Don't Tell Me"). A standout track aside from the first single ("What Took You So Long?") is "Better Be Careful", contemporary northern soul which could be described as SpiceWorld's "Stop" being covered by Texas. A Girl Like Me is a great debut album with a mature sound which could mark the end of Baby Spice and the arrival of Emma Bunton. --Georgina Collins