Victoria Beckham

Their time may have been short and come to an unexpectedly sudden and messy end with the dreadful Forever album, but the three or so years that the Spice Girls stalked the world in their big shoes were, indefatigably, the best of times.

They got up people’s noses in a way not seen since the days of punk, mounted a complete multi-media blitz and made a succession of cracking pop tunes to boot. All of which makes their rather dull solo output the more disappointing.

‘Not Such An Innocent Girl’ says it all really – Beckham’s thin voice buried amongst a studio creation that hints at R’n’B, garage and dance styling without taking it anywhere too radical. ‘A Mind Of Its Own’ and ‘That Kind Of Girl’ (almost an updated version of ‘The Pina Colada’ song with its talk of champagne from paper cups) are much better but the album takes a nose dive soon after into a stream of sub-Jennifer Lopez thumpers and syrupy ballads.

Occasionally the desire for soul bearing peeks through (the woefully titled ‘No Trix, No Games’) but nothing matches ‘Wannabe’, ‘Spice Up Your Life’ or even the sadly absent ‘Out Of Your Mind’.