I don’t know what it is, but whenever I hear All Saints or Sugababes I feel grimy. That whole harmonising sexy girls with lip gloss thing from the 90s just made me feel…uncomfortable and grimy.
Perhaps it’s me.
I wouldn’t say I was overtly prudish in any way – hey if you like that kind of thing that’s just fine but leave me alone with my fish fingers and lettuces – just the whole aesthetic – the videos with their soft focus close ups, the close mic-singing with ASMR, the needy clingy lyrics sung with vocal fry – it just makes me feel uneasy, at risk – like I’m being preyed on, stalked or trapped in a room with a over enthusiastic nymphomaniac who won’t take no for an answer. Perhaps I over analyse these things but I’m 100% certain that if the aesthetic was reversed there would be stern letters written to the police and I don’t mean Gordon Sumner and his pals.
All Saints by All Saints is the British girl band’s first album – released roughly around the time that the Spice Girls were menacing music and popular culture around the world – was seen as strong. The line-up then was Mel Blatt, Shaznay Lewis and the Appleton sisters Natalie and Nicole, founding member Simone Rainford having left the band by the time the album was launched. Later, the band would go on to release four other albums with mixed success, the difficult second album Saints & Sinners reaching number 1 in the UK album charts.
At the height of their popularity It was fairly difficult to watch or listen to any public service broadcast without seeing the girls, in various revealing modes of dress, promoting their works. Typical to bands of their ilk differences of opinion, changes in direction, solo work and intense public glare – especially from grimy sleazy toilet paper tabloids – lead to fractures. Four splits and three reunions culminated in one final album (to date) and tour with their male counterparts, Westlife.
I’ve no idea why this album is in my library. I guess there’s a couple of songs on it that summon me back to the noughties. But Jeez, noughties music was bollocks wasn’t it?
Stegzy's Music Project 
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