Reason had so many album-worthy B-sides. You do wonder who was sat there listening to the material and hearing songs like 'Soul Boy' and 'Lose Myself in You' and saying ''Yes, these need to be on the album'' and dismissing things like 'Love You Without Trying' and 'Wonderland'. In fact any of those B-sides are more worthy of making the album than 'Soul Boy' and 'Lose Myself in You' which both painfully sound unfinished and very dull.
Melanie C - (Self-titled)
- Thread starter Music City Queen
- Start date
An absolute ODD decision. Wonderland, Love You Without Trying and Living Without You were the holy trinity of the b-sides and were much, much, much stronger than some of the album cuts. She literally came back after a multi-million selling album with four top five hits and released Reason with that track list. It will forever baffle me.
It's interesting to note there were plans for this record to be made solely with Marius de Vries (she mentioned this during one of her Q&As), before they decided to work on it with multiple collaborators. Judging by the standard of the songs they made together (Northern Star, Closer, Follow Me, Here It Comes Again, Wonderland...), I'm sure we would have gotten a strong piece of work. It felt like they wanted to mark a clear departure from the debut album, hence all these gorgeous atmospheric tracks being relegated to the Bsides status.
Still, she had an incredible team working on the songs which ended up being on Reason, so it's no excuse. As Melanie herself pointed out, the album lacks a strong vision, and probably some proper A&R backing.
Still, she had an incredible team working on the songs which ended up being on Reason, so it's no excuse. As Melanie herself pointed out, the album lacks a strong vision, and probably some proper A&R backing.
It really was the curse of sophomore slump and she's said herself the team that helped with Northern Star had all moved over to the US by the time she was putting Reason together. They really should have looked after her better and course corrected, considering how much money she made them and how credible she still was off the back of Northern Star. Even Geri managed to release a 3rd album given her second albums underperformance.
A whole album with Marius would have been amazing.
To be fair, while Scream fared similar success in the UK, it did certify in other European countries and served her biggest hit to date, which went on to sell 3 million worldwide, so you can't really compare both campaings. Also, Geri was very much the A-lister in 2001 - Melanie, much less so by 2003.
I'd still love Reason on vinyl. I think the artwork for that era was actually really nice.
For me, something like this would have been so much stronger.
01. Yeh Yeh Yeh
02. Here It Comes Again
03. Reason
04. Love To You
05. On the Horizon
06. Melt
07. Like That
08. Water
09. I Love You Without Trying
10. Let's Love
11. Home
12. Wonderland
02. Here It Comes Again
03. Reason
04. Love To You
05. On the Horizon
06. Melt
07. Like That
08. Water
09. I Love You Without Trying
10. Let's Love
11. Home
12. Wonderland
I finally finished her book. Enjoyed it a lot. One thing I liked about it was she said even though she is much better now she realizes depression is probably something she will always struggle with but she has the tools to manage it. I feel a lot of addiction and mental illness memoirs have this pat ending where all of their issues magically go away. Life isn’t like that. I really appreciate the realness.
Reason had a lot of great songs all around as a project, but most of the songs included on the actual album were not the best picks out of her pool of material.
All I can say about it almost 20 years later:
- Here It Comes Again was a truly shite lead single. No point in meandering about it. It did fuck up her chances of the main album being a success.
- Both 'Independence day' and 'I love you without trying' were the contenders for lead single, to me - strong songs with a clear straightforward message of what she was trying to portrait and represent in that era. The later song (I love you) was also the forever lost natural album closer. 'On the horizon' (bar the random brown eyes lyric, which is quite specific, to say the least) was also a sensible option for the first single release.
- Loved the whole photoshoot. She looked extremely beautiful (just like she does nowadays and how she has always been, to be fair) and the calm and confident vibe was also rightly pictured by the photographer. Just a further slight note: the letters on the front cover should have been in a lovely shade of blue.
All I can say about it almost 20 years later:
- Here It Comes Again was a truly shite lead single. No point in meandering about it. It did fuck up her chances of the main album being a success.
- Both 'Independence day' and 'I love you without trying' were the contenders for lead single, to me - strong songs with a clear straightforward message of what she was trying to portrait and represent in that era. The later song (I love you) was also the forever lost natural album closer. 'On the horizon' (bar the random brown eyes lyric, which is quite specific, to say the least) was also a sensible option for the first single release.
- Loved the whole photoshoot. She looked extremely beautiful (just like she does nowadays and how she has always been, to be fair) and the calm and confident vibe was also rightly pictured by the photographer. Just a further slight note: the letters on the front cover should have been in a lovely shade of blue.
For those who don't frequent the Jessie Ware thread, source is a usually reliable ATRL insider:
They/Them
I am listening to Northern Star in full for the first time and...I think The Sea has a rival for my favourite Mel C album.
Just Reason and Beautiful Intentions to go now.
Just Reason and Beautiful Intentions to go now.
Nice one! Mine would be:
01. Yeh Yeh Yeh
02. Here it Comes Again
03. Reason
04. Independence Day
05. Positively Somewhere
06. Melt
07. Love To You
08. Water
09. I Love You Without Trying
10. Living Without You
11. Home
12. Wonderland
02. Here it Comes Again
03. Reason
04. Independence Day
05. Positively Somewhere
06. Melt
07. Love To You
08. Water
09. I Love You Without Trying
10. Living Without You
11. Home
12. Wonderland
Independence Day was from Northern Star era though, so I can't see them wanting to recycle it for the next album. Here It Comes Again is such a great song but I agree that perhaps it wasn't the ideal lead single, especially considering that her big hits at that time were a dance song and an R&B track.
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Her team missed a trick not making it the official single for 'Bend it Like Beckham', it would've been the perfect bridge between the two eras. I'm not sure the film was expected to be such a big hit at the time however.