'' is the second album by
British Pop singer
Emma Bunton , released on
March 9 ,
2004 in the United Kingdom and
Canada , and
January 25 ,
2005 in the United States.
The album was the second to follow her
2001 release, ''
A Girl Like Me '', and spent over twelve weeks inside the UK albums chart, peaking at number seven, and selling over 150,000 copies, earning gold award status. The album was widely acclaimed by critics as being the "best solo Spice album ever" due to its catchy and fun use of sounds from the
Motown and
1960s era. The album was largely produced by
Mike Peden and
Yak Bondy , who have produced tracks for
S Club 7 and
Lucie Silvas to name but a few. Other contributions on the album courtesy of
Cathy Dennis ,
Henry Binns , and Latin-American singer
Luis Fonsi . 'One Thing I Know', an unreleased track co-written by Bunton for ''Free Me'', was recorded by another 19 management act
S Club 8 for their
Sundown album. Emma's original vocals can clearly be heard in the S Club 8 version.
The first single, "Free Me", was released in the spring of 2003. The song immediately picked up airplay, and the single sold well in the UK, peaking at number five on the UK Top 40. "Maybe" was released as the second single in the autumn of 2003, and also gained extensive airplay throughout the UK, and peaked one position lower than its predecessor, at number six.
In the spring of 2004, the third single, "I'll Be There", and the album were released. The single, like its two predecessors, performed well on the charts, peaking at number seven, one position below "Maybe", and two positions below "Free Me". The album sold more copies in its first week then her debut solo record had, and would ultimately go on to outsell it by 25,000 copies.
Later in the year, the fourth single, "Crickets Sing for Anamaria", was released. Despite its harder beat and grittier sound, by now the impact of ''Free Me'' was beginning to ware off, and the song only came in at number fifteen on the UK Top 40, totalling 25,000 copies, and becoming Bunton's lowest-selling single.
In the U.S., both "Free Me" and "Maybe" were dance club regulars. The songs peaked in the top three of the Dance Club Play charts at number one and number three respectively.
The album has sold over 300,000 copies worldwide.
The album was released on 19 Recordings, which is a division of 19 Management, the company owned by
Simon Fuller . Bunton says of the inspiration behind the album: "I've been listening to motown since I was about five, and just loving it, being very passionate about the fact how it was all done live, and I thought, 'Hold on, I always talk about the fact I love 60's and motown', so I thought I'd take elements of it, bits of it, and put it into my album, so that's exactly what I did." However, Bunton's songs on this album mainly started life as a simple scribble. She says, "I have a little book beside my bed, where I put all my ideas for songs and stuff. It's kind of weird, 'cuz usually when I'm having a dream, I'll wake up, and I'll write something down, then I'll look at it again and think, 'God, what was I dreaming about?'"
"Free Me": "I got to dress up like a Bond Girl in this video, which was great fun, and the director,
Tim Royes , was great to work with. We shot this video in Rio just after the carnival had taken place, so it was just perfect."
"Maybe": "The 'ba da das' in this song are actually inspired from music in
German Porn movies that the writer, Yak Bondy, played to me... not the movies, but the music. It just had that kind of catchy, kinky, vibe to it, so I thought, 'Yeah, I'll take it!' The video is based around the movie
Sweet Charity , and I always have such a laugh performing this song, 'cuz the dancing is mad!"
"Crickets Sing for Anamaria": "I came across this track on the
Astrud Gilberto album when I was filming the "Free Me" video - and I took this at first, and was unsure of how I'd work it myself, but when I got my musicians in again, it all fell into place and I love the track. It's a perfect song for the summer."
