Today’s two CDs are great weathervanes to help us understand the state of today’s music industry — looking to the future, while loving the past. On one hand, we have the Plain White T’s, garage band sensibility given a commercial veneer; and on the other hand, interest has never been higher for an act we thought had disappeared for good back at the turn of the century. Yup, disbanded in 2000, the Spice Girls are back with a vengeance.
Every Second Counts — Plain White T’s (EMI). The funny thing with the CD is that the breakout track of Hey There Delilah is just a bonus single, and in fact, isn’t very representative of the band’s music. But you take fame in any way it comes, and the plaintive, acoustic Delilah even had People magazine in the US hunting down the girl who inspired frontman Tom Higgenson to write the song. Filled with teen longing, the smash single is a tender reminder of what the band is capable of performing. It is a far cry though from the much more frenzied, energetic music that dominates the CD. You think Green Day or My Chemical Romance, tone down the bombast and rhetoric, tweak it with more garage, punk, power chords and angst-filled lyrics, and you have a pretty good idea of what the Plain White T’s brings to the table. Lyrics like “Hate is a strong word, but I really really don’t like you,” and a song about how this girl only calls and says she loves you when she has had one drink too many pretty sum up the very “real” mindset of the band, and why the members have struck such a chord with the record-buying public. You may be sad and angry, but still create fun music.
Greatest Hits — Spice Girls (EMI). Sold-out dates on a world tour that includes the US, Canada and Europe and you know the Spice Girls... now Mamas... are ready to rule the world, yet again. Over seven dates at the O2 Arena in London in January, and all seats were sold out in a record number of hours. Dates in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing had to be postponed because of the frenzied demand for more dates in Europe. You don’t have to rub your eyes, it is 2007, and yet this act that formed in 1996 and disbanded in 2000 is one of the hottest tickets in town. No real surprises to the Greatest Hits collection. There are two new tracks, Headlines and Voodoo, that are both very slick products, and will top the charts, without a doubt. There’s a bonus DVD that carries all the videos of the group’s hits from 1996 to 2000. We see with at least two tracks, Mama and Viva Forever, just how much of a debt the band actually owes such acts like ABBA. It’s the same pop sensibility given a late ’90s update. And while I never thought that much musically of the act, I can see just what made them so popular, and with time, now gives them such a campy/glam shine.