"Schizophonic": Geri Halliwell 10 Years Later

As a member of the Spice Girls, Geri "Ginger Spice" Halliwell ascended the ranks in popular music history as one of the most successful female groups ever. In May of 1998, Halliwell departed the Spice Girls dramatically before the start of the American leg of their Spice World Tour. The remaining four Spice Girls stormed through the American leg and completed it without fail. A reinvention of their own went on without Halliwell. Scrutiny fell upon the Halliwell, the question of whether she had the talent to make it alone was omnipresent.

Halliwell did have the talent and her debut album Schizophonic (1999) carved out her own niche in pop music. Ten years later, the record is as hungry, urgent, and fascinating as when it first arrived.

The History
After the uproar of Halliwell's departure cooled, she managed to quickly secure a record deal with EMI, the parent company to Virgin Records where she resided as a Spice Girl. It was important to not cause ripples for her former band mates, but go with a label that was still familiar to her presence.

Looking to the past few months for writing experience, Halliwell began an unsure trek toward what became Schizophonic.

The Record
Geri Halliwell immediately reached out to the production duo Absolute, Paul Wilson and Andy Watkins. Absolute had ties with Halliwell from her Spice Girls days.

Halliwell had bathed in the pop of Shirley Bassey, Madonna, and George Michael and all of that worked itself into her debut. Halliwell's unashamed love of pop music is what helped Schizophonic take on its fresh appeal. Thematically, Schizophonic divided between a "red" and "white" section. The "red" section dealt with "ego," and "white" with "spirituality." Lead writing credits on all 10 cuts went to Halliwell, who set the track that she was a wit with a pen.  Cleverness was platformed on the saucy thrust of "Bag It Up." In conjunction with a plethora of disco fluff and groove, Halliwell quipped about male and female contests:

I like chocolate and controversy, he likes Friday and bad company. I like midnight, it's when I'm in the mood, he likes the morning, that's when he's rude! Just a bad case of opposite sex! Have to look to the stars! All we need is a little respect! 'Cos men are from Venus and girls are from Mars!"

Noteworthiness extended to Halliwell's voice, which sounded comfortable in its own husky glory on "Bag It Up." Halliwell didn't hide, rather she made her voice the force that tied songs like the "La Isla Bonita" doused "Mi Chico Latino" and the touching "Someone's Watching Over Me" together.  Schizophonic followed  a pop changeability model, no two songs sounded alike. One could hear the jazzed up pop explosiveness of "Look At Me" or the Hindi pep of "Let Me Love You."

"Let Me Love You" started with a sitar rinsed chant from Halliwell which hypnotized the listener before it fell into kinetic guitar and drum dramatics. It stood out as the best example of converging the musical, vocal, and lyrical ambitions of the LP into one perfect song.

The Impact
Schizophonic was released in England on June 7th, 1999 and sailed into the #4 position on the U.K. Album Chart. It moveD over 600,000 copies and earned certified double platinum there.
The album spun off four singles: "Look At Me" (5/10/99-#2), "Mi Chico Latino" (8/16/99-#1), "Lift Me Up" (11/1/99-#1), and "Bag It Up" (3/13/00-#1). Halliwell scored a U.K. Top 10 hit, and three U.K. number one hit singles, following the six she achieved as a Spice Girl.

This trend was duplicated by her former group mates respective solo careers. Halliwell actually entered into the first, and only, "Spice Girls Chart Battle" with Emma "Baby Spice" Bunton on November 1st, 1999. Ms. Bunton released her first solo single, a joint effort with U.K. rockers Tin Tin Out, a cover of Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians' "What I Am." Going head to head with Halliwell's third single "Lift Me Up," Bunton's single-only release took the #2 position on the U.K. Singles Chart, while Halliwell took #1. The song later appeared on Bunton's gold certified debut, A Girl Like Me (2001).

Schizophonic, along with Melanie C's Northern Star (1999) and Bunton's Free Me (2004/2005) are the only solo-Spice Girl recordings to get a U.S. release. It moved enough units by 2001 Stateside to gain a gold certification with 500,000 copies. Though it had a limited shelf life on the U.S. Billboard 200 (#42), it's the highest ranking for a solo Spice Girl on American charts. Internationally, the record did respectably, it reached reach gold status in Mexico, Australia, and Spain.

Schizophonic EPK, Circa 1999



Geri Halliwell recorded two more albums: Scream If You Wanna Go Faster (2001) and Passion (2005). Both spun off many hit singles, but sales tapered off with each record. Between these projects Halliwell wrote two best-selling autobiographies before reuniting with the Spice Girls in the 2007 for their successful tour and best-of collection. These days Halliwell is a content mother and author of a popular line of children's books. Her mark as an indelible pop act for her time is heard throughout Schizophonic, a timeless token to pop spunk. Five stars out of five.-QH

[Editor's Note: Schizophonic is in print as an affordable import or easily found used in U.S. record stores.-QH]

The Evolution of Mandy Moore

1999 delivered four blondes who steered their way into the collective music consciousness. In the first wave we had Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, the second wave included Jessica Simpson and Mandy Moore. While two of the four became commercially viable, one other sonically faceless, Moore's sweet faced musings seemed pleasant if unassuming ("Candy"). When she reached her second, eponymous record in 2001 the turbulent struggle of her musical identity trying to surface was heard. There were promising results in the exotic force of "In My Pocket" and the wistful "Cry."

The key ingredient to Mandy Moore's fascinating musical presence is her voice; inviting, genuine, pretty, and possessing enough distinction without overpowering its audience.
2003 bore the official rise of her creative phoenix with Coverage, her third album. Inspired by the songbooks of XTC, Elton John, Blondie, and Carly Simon, Coverage beamed with energetic, but reverent takes. The songs were delivered with sides of guitar, strings, various jazz related structures, in other words just great, musically inclined pop.

Moving closer to this sound of pop, Wild Hope (2007) reached into her own mind proving her talent for songwriting. Songs that dealt with the healing and damaging effects of relationships ("Can't You Just Adore Her," "All Good Things") and self-affirmations ("Extraordinary," "Gardenia") filled Wild Hope.  With her fifth long player, Amanda Leigh, it all comes home. The plush spaciousness of the arrangements on Coverage and the probing prose of Wild Hope all converge into one space.

"I Could Break Your Heart Any Day of the Week"
Directed By: Ghost Town Media


Listen to the fairytale "Merrimack River," or the stinging sing-a-along of "I Could Break Your Heart Any Day of the Week," the sparks behind Mandy Moore's artistic arrival are now flames. Records like Amanda Leigh will have the injustice of being overlooked in today's market. Hopefully if your eyes have caught this, it will convince you to give Ms. Moore a try. She is worth the time.-QH

[Editor's Note: For more information on Mandy Moore, visit: http://www.mandymoore.com Amanda Leigh in stores and online retailers now.-QH]

Expect Excess: Prince's "LoTUSFLOW3R" Confounds & Thrills

With Prince, born Prince Rodgers Nelson, a degree of excess has always factored into his prolific musical package. Coming as a kiss off to detractors, his ego is backed up by his talent and presence as a multi-instrumentalist, rapturous live performer and songwriter. His music tends to swallow an audience whole with its addictive grooves and unrelenting energy. So when Prince landed in 1978 with his succinct debut For You and winded through the ‘80’s and mid-‘90’s, in his wake he left albums and singles that defied genre gravity.

Then, something happened; Prince lost the innate balance which kept his excesses in check. Slowly his work took on a suffocating sense of insular paranoia and lost its engaging dexterity. During these “wilderness years” Prince began to self-release much of his work after being free of a major label deal and aimed them at his hardcore constituents. In 2004, on the 20th anniversary of his groundbreaking film and record Purple Rain, Prince regained the spotlight and attracted the casual and still enthralled the devoted. Musicology (2004), 3121 (2006), and Planet Earth (2007) quickly rolled out, records that were accessible studies in his sound, if slightly muted by his recent conversion to the Jehovah Witness faith.

At this time, his newly acquired audience and diehards waited patiently for that record that would be the afterglow of his creative zenith, which was arguably in 1988.

On his 30th studio album LOtUSFLOW3R, he unleashes possibly too much of a good thing upon the marketplace. LOtUSFLOW3R divides into three portions, LOtUSFLOW3R, MPLSoUND, and Elixir. The hard copy version is only available through Target retailers, and shows that Prince continues to find new and intriguing ways to get his music to listeners without the involvement of major labels. The digital version can be located on his website.

Elixir is sung by another (in a long line) of Prince’s pretty dolls, this one is named Bria Valente. For all intents and purposes, it’s a Prince album with her supplying the vocals. There is nothing to gravitate towards, and her sexuality is subdued so unlike Vanity or Apollonia there won’t be any rude jams found. It makes one pine for the more talented women Prince has worked with such as Sheila E., Wendy & Lisa, Jill Jones, and Sheena Easton; at least they had beauty and brains.

The focus falls upon the double records of LOtUSFLOW3R and MPLSoUND. FLOW3R is a platter of improvisational, loose jazz/funk and several rockier bits thrown in. Prince turns on his full vocal charm: croons, squeals, hiccups, and guffaws that glue the songs to their jumpy arrangements.

“Feel Good, Feel Better, Feel Wonderful” is a quirky, jovial romp that brings Prince’s live energy on the record and makes it hard pressed to keep one’s feet flat on the floor. He nods toward the vocoder trend tastefully on the lithe “Boom,” and works out his guitar to awesome effect on “Wall of Berlin.” The latter shows that Prince is one of the more underrated guitarists of the last several decades.

There are a few dim spots on FLOW3R where his message becomes lost in the translation, like on the preach heavy “Colonized Mind” and overstays his welcome on the instrumental closer “…Back to the Lotus” which detracts from the power of the matching opening partner “From the Lotus…”


MPLSoUND draws on Prince’s Linn LM-1 drum machine constructs that filled dance floors in the 1980’s. Opening with no less than three numbers that find him using the familiar beat bursts, echo snaps, snare snatches, and slippery/gummy synthesizer sound walls, it feels like a party on first listen. The humorous staccato stomp of “(There’ll Never B) Another Like Me,” the maniacal Willy Wonka flirt featuring Q-Tip “Chocolate Box,” and the glistening, Camille cameo of “Dance 4 Me” show that Prince can get down with the best of anyone.

Sadly, MPLSoUND loses steam after these three gems. Prince seems tired, as if padding the first section of the album left him uninspired, and every other song works productions that have noticeably been heard before. Evidence of this is heard on “Ol’ Skool Company” which could be a doppelganger for The Black Album (1987/1994) cut “Dead On It.” In other areas, mindless vamp rants, like the messily arranged “No More Candy 4 U” show that Prince’s overproduction is his undoing.

The record will exhaust casual followers and either underwhelm or delight longtime followers. It won’t reach the near perfect post-1988 recordings like The Gold Experience (1995) and that may frustrate some. Prince will continue to walk to his distinct groove, even if it has grown a bit too familiar. Three stars out of five.-QH

[Editor's Note: Written by Quentin Harrison and originally published in the April 8th-14th, 2009 issue of the Dayton City Paper. For more information on Prince visit http://www.lotusflow3r.com-QH]