Happy 25th Anniversary to Melanie C’s debut solo album Northern Star, originally released October 18, 1999.
“Goodbye” was issued in Great Britain as a single on December 14, 1998; the composition was the first offering from the Spice Girls after the departure of Geri Halliwell seven months earlier. Although the group had more than proven that they could stand tall as a quartet in the wake of Halliwell’s defection, the arrival of “Goodbye” at the summit of the British Singles Chart—their eighth number one single of an eventual nine—confirmed that the Spice Girls were here to stay.
At the top of 1999, the Spice Girls took a brief respite from the writing and recording duties for their as-yet-to-be-titled third album and pursued their own individual interests. Initiating forays into solo work for Melanie Brown and Melanie Chisholm via “I Want You Back” and “When You’re Gone”—with respective guests Missy Elliott and Bryan Adams—garnered acclaim prior to the release of “Goodbye.”
Emboldened by her partnership with Adams, Chisholm temporarily relocated to Los Angeles to network with possible collaborators and script material for what was to become Northern Star. Additional work on the long player also took place in London and Glasgow. Chisholm had a decorated class of production and writing talent backing her on the album—Marius de Vries, Damian LeGassick, Rick Rubin, William Orbit, Rick Nowels and Rhett Lawrence were just some of the people that gathered around the Spice Girl.
Still, Chisholm creatively centered Northern Star as the principal writer or co-writer on the twelve sides that comprised the finished record and the subsequent outtakes (five) used as B-sides to the singles the LP yielded across its commercial lifespan.
Chisholm allowed herself to indulge as a writer separate from her group mates for the first time for an extended period; the songs to spring forth from her imagination were autobiographical and emotionally restless. Whether deconstructing her own identity (“Northern Star,” “Feel the Sun”) or exploring the consequences of a grown-up romance (“Be the One,” “Closer”) authenticity sits at the heart of each song on Northern Star.
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Then there are the stunningly eclectic sonic canvases of the record that Chisholm sketches her stories upon to make them real. The booming guitar-pop of “Go!,” the moody electronica of “I Turn to You” and the deluxe hip-hop soul of “Never Be the Same Again” that partnered her with the late Lisa “Left-Eye” Lopez of TLC fame all crackle with immediacy and intent. As a singer, Chisholm’s rich mezzo-soprano supercharges the song stock on Northern Star, as she swings from intimate tones (“If That Were Me”) to affable bluster (“Ga Ga”) throughout the LP. Chisholm’s vocal performances, full of a resonance and feeling, hint that the creation of her debut collection had set off deeply personal changes within her.
The first glimpse into Chisholm’s newfound transformation came about with the release of the album’s inaugural single “Goin’ Down.” A thunderous piece of punk pop, the track was supported by the Giuseppe Capotundi directed video which featured Chisholm singing amid a riotous warehouse party and sporting a fiery short haircut. “Goin’ Down” was a striking departure from the demure Sporty Spice persona she’d projected a year beforehand, but when the single landed safely within the confines of the U.K. Top 5, it only served to help legitimize her musical makeover.
Northern Star was met with surprisingly solid reviews upon its release in the United Kingdom and its subsequent arrival in America one month later. Press write-ups for any and all Spice Girls related efforts had criminally dismissed them with a few exceptions up to that point. With Northern Star, the slow, but ultimately inexorable turn toward critical acceptance for the Spice Girls—separately and collectively—had begun. Commercially, Northern Star certified platinum three times over and spun off five hit charters; two of those five singles gave Chisholm her first standalone number one entries.
Despite the triumph of Northern Star, her personal state of being was in flux. Chisholm’s battle with her mental health—which cut short her ability to partake in any overt promotional duties for the third Spice Girls album Forever (2000)—now threatened to undermine her first formal world tour due to start in early 2001. Chisholm managed to go out and finish her concert series to applause before taking time away for herself. The follow-up to Northern Star manifested in 2003 as Reason and reflected her much more positive disposition.
More records and achievements—both alone and as a Spice Girl—were to emerge in the two-and-a-half decades since Northern Star, but its impact on Chisholm’s career and the overall Spice Girls legacy is as potent as it was upon landfall in 1999.
Read more about Melanie C and the Spice Girls in the second edition of Quentin Harrison's book Record Redux: Spice Girls, which is available to order here; he uses the ambitious project to trace the rise of the British quintet by examining every studio album and single in their respective group and solo repertoires. Additional entries in the Record Redux Series include the second edition of Record Redux: Kylie Minogue issued in 2022.
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Editor's note: this anniversary tribute was originally published in 2019 and has since been edited for accuracy and timeliness.