Disco de Emma Bunton: “Life in Mono [Bonus Tracks]”

Life In Mono continues in the same vein as Free Me... sort of.

While there are a few tracks with that same sun-drenched bossa nova sound (Mischevious, He Loves Me Not), this is not Free Me II, but the next chapter of Emma's journey. The album opens with a lovely ballad, "All I Need To Know"- gutsy move! Next, the title track is a cover of a song by the group Mono. Where the original was like a dark music box tune, here it's been reworked like a James Bond theme (Anyone else think Ms. Bunton should REALLY do a Bond theme?).

The standouts are "I Wasn't Looking (When I Found Love)" and "Take Me To Another Town", both with catchy melodies and lush cinematic orchestrations. On "Undressing You", and especially the bonus track "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps", Emma shows she can convincingly go from sweetie to seductress in a heartbeat.

As wonderful as Free Me was, Life In Mono is a more mature affair. This is music for grown-ups, for lounging around on lazy Sundays or sultry late nights. Once again, Emma has proved her talent. She has found music that suites her voice perfectly, and she delivers it with sensuality and class- a rarity in today's popular music.

It remains to be seen if this album will be released stateside as Free Me was, and if it will be sucessfully pitched to the American market, which might too easily mistake it for "Easy Listening", which it most certainly is not. Let's keep our fingers crossed. We need more music like this.

Baby Spice was always my favorite Spice Girl, next to Posh Spice. Fast forward to a little over 10 years later after the Spice Girls hit the scene and who would've ever thought that Emma would be probably the most critically-acclaimed out of all the Spice Girls with her last two solo albums; Free Me and her newest one, Life in Mono.

The production on this is quality! Where her last album, Free Me, succeded in capturing elements of Brazil, bossa nova and 60's flair, Life in Mono upgrades the sound a bit with even lusher instrumentals and superb vocals from Emma. My favorite songs on the album are:

All I Need To Know-The second single from the album and the most beautiful and tender track on the album. A very sweet ballad.

Mischievous-The bossa nova feel to it is incredible and matches Emma's voice perfectly, especially during the middle of the track where Emma sounds really angelic. A standout track on here.

He Loves Me Not-This song captures the sound of Brazil perfectly! One listen to this song's samba-like arrangements will have you imagining yourself in Rio de Janeiro on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Undressing You-This song screams "Bond Theme"! Emma's being a cheeky gal on this track and it's a very make-love-to type of track.

Something Tells Me (Something's Gonna Happen)-Another bossa nova type of track. A great one to listen to after a long day.

Por Favor-A very slow, very seductive track. Emma's syrupy voice drenches the track with a romantic feel on this one.

Downtown-This one sees Emma covering the classic Petula Clark song. The BBC Children In Need single for 2006 and another UK Top 3 singles hit for Emma.

I'm not sure if this will receive an American release or not, seeing as how the fickle music industry here probably wouldn't think it'd sell over here and is not mainstream enough for American listeners. Truth be told it might not, but don't let that stop you from buying (or in the American case, importing) this lusciously good album. The perfect album for candlelight dinners and amor.

Emma has given us another really great 60's influenced pop album. Out of all the Spice Girls, who would have imagined that the one called "Baby Spice" would end up with the most accomplished pop career? She chose substance over commercialism and really hit a home run with pop fans. Why hasn't she been asked to sing the next 007 theme song? Or alteast be a Bond girl in the next film?

All 3 releases have been laid back, and thoroughly enjoyable. I'm happily looking forward to more of the same.

Life in Mono brings us not Baby spice anymore. Now Emma's all grown up, her voice has matured during the last few years and now she has much better talent than some of the other Spices.

Life in Mono is of a style like her previous Free Me, but much more matured. I got impressed about the sound of this album, it has more soft music, more deep and intense.

"All I Need to Know", "Life in Mono", "Perfect Strangers", "He Loves Me Not", "Take Me to Another Town", "Undressing You" and "Downtown" in my opinion are the best songs from the album, all the other songs are still great, but this ones are my favorite.

I fully recommend this album, it doesn't matter if you liked or not the Spice Girls since it sounds way more different than 11 years ago, when we heard a lot of "wanna's".

If you appreciate sophisticated smartly arranged pop songs with catchy melodies then you should give this CD a try. It's a breath of fresh air in today's melodically-challenged musical landscape. Honestly, this CD has more hooks than Opie's tackle-box. Maybe that's why, like Emma's last CD 'Free Me', I listen to it day after day, which is something I very rarely do with new CDs I buy. She sings in a very pleasant Olivia Newton John-ish voice that straightforwardly accentuates the song's strengths and she doesn't sound much like any of the current slate of new millenium starlets out there . It's strange to me that such wonderful CDs could be made a former Spice Girl, a group I never had much use for, but there it is. I think this CD proves that 'Free Me' was no fluke, and I look forward to seeing where Emma Bunton goes from here.