Rachel Stevens - Some Girls

Some Girls
Spin That Bottle
Some Girls (The Sharp Boys Hot Fridge Vocal)
Some Girls (Video)

Rachel Stevens was a member of seminal teenybopper band S Club 7, ratcheting up a shedload of hits over a couple of years. Embarking upon a solo career after the inevitable split, Rachel has become the most successful ex-member to date after initially charting with the song Sweet Dreams My L.A Ex (which was a neat pun in my view).

This release was tied in with Sport Relief and reached number 2 in the UK charts not too long ago. Sport Relief is a joint venture between BBC Sport and Comic Relief and is an annual event in the UK following on from the successful Live Aid/Band Aid events in the mid 80's. This years event was a mile walk where you could complete a mile in any fashion you wanted, raising as much sponsorship as you could in the process. This event got a lot of media coverage on the BBC, rather obviously as they were key co-sponsors, and so this tie-in actually raised the profile of the song no end as it got massive airplay.

Some Girls was co-written and produced by Richard X, a man doing his best to get synth music back where it belongs. He's doing pretty well with it as well, judging by his recent track record. This track is highly reminiscent of Goldfrapp's Strict Machine and is a glorious electro-stomper. Lyrically it's rather risque, the subject matter being a young singer under the tutelage of some musical guru/agent with some dubious sexual preferences. With this in mind, it's a bit of a strange choice for a charity record, but hey...

Spin That Bottle is a typical r'n'b track of the modern kind, the sort churned out by the likes of Britney, Christina, and a million others. Probably fine for the genre, but one I tend to avoid by using the track skip button.

The remix of Some Girls is pretty good, but not as addictive as the original track. This is due to the fact that most of the synth is stripped away and you're left with bass and drum patterns and the odd synth fourish here and there. There is a good use of sound effects on this track, which lasts just over 8 minutes. Worth hearing more than once, but I prefer the radio edit.

Rounding off this single is the ubiquitous video. The inclusion of video's on UK singles is a nice touch and adds value for money in my book, if only because you get the chance to see it again long after the pre-hit campaign and everyone has forgotten about it. It's a nice enough video, if a little typical of the boy/girl band genre.

Added:  Saturday, September 18, 2004
Reviewer:  Si Wooldridge
Score:
Related web link:  http://www.rachelstevensofficial.com
hits: 744
Language: eng