Rachel Stevens' team of producers cop mostly the synthetic soundscapes of Kylie and Goldfrapp and what appears to be a fuller embrace of electronic bubblings that had so far grazed maintstream pop but was yet to become a cluttered harddrive of 'Keeps Gettin' Better,' 'What You Waiting For?' and the like. The former SClub7 alum herself is not the focus and as far as I can tell, her capable voice lends sometimes Minogue's grace and Aguilera's attitude to the music. The lyrics are about a girl in search of love but I'm not one to tell.
The one thing I can't figure out is how Kylie's Fever came out in 2001. Madonna's Music came out in 2000 too. But the influences are strong here. As far as I can tell, those albums were more diverse than straight electropop and that this kind of album would have flopped around the turn of the century (instead of flopping in 2005).
This album landed during a time pop was shifting its embrace surely to electro, once it discovered that a harder synth sound meant money. The big name producers were almost certainly already listening to electroclash and just needed a go-ahead to mash those beats in. This was the interface between tween idol and the all out roux boots / goulding / perfectly gaga electropop onslaught, a sort of mirror of the careers of pop stars who began with Jive jingles and 80s pop stylings at heart, and then began putting out 'Gimme More' and 'Music'.
The album got rave reviews that year although I would say only half of the songs are true pop gems. As it was a disappointing commercial failure, Rachel Stevens only recently got back into recording music. I've been having fun listening to this album tonight though and I think you might enjoy it a few times too.
a couple samples (both produced by Richard X):
Some critical reception:
"Bold, swaggering and accomplished...Quite simply, it's the pop album of the year."
"Come and Get It is quite simply a pop tour-de-force that deserves to sell a billion copies. Please, don't let this end up as a forgotten classic".
BBC music
"This utterly mediocre (sales) performance (in terms of its genre, at least) is astonishing when you consider that the album was masterminded by the finest songwriters and producers in the game...but its failure becomes utterly mind-boggling when you actually listen to the thing."
allmusic.com
"its 13 tracks drift by in a haze of nothingness; it is a masterpiece of insubstantiality."
The Telegraph (talking about pop, this is an ultimate compliment)
"deserves to be a hit. It is packed with brilliant, cutting-edge pop music." It's lack of success was "the public's loss".
The Guardian
"a brilliant collection of sophisticated dancefloor songs and quite frankly, one of the most stunning albums of the year."
Londonist
"My pants are unable to withhold the giant sequoia I have for this woman and her producers' music"
Chumbletron Peebleton
"Probably the third greatest Stevens in history behind Shakin' and Thaddeus"
BBC History
"Come and Get It is quite simply a pop tour-de-force that deserves to sell a billion copies. Please, don't let this end up as a forgotten classic".
BBC music
"This utterly mediocre (sales) performance (in terms of its genre, at least) is astonishing when you consider that the album was masterminded by the finest songwriters and producers in the game...but its failure becomes utterly mind-boggling when you actually listen to the thing."
allmusic.com
"its 13 tracks drift by in a haze of nothingness; it is a masterpiece of insubstantiality."
The Telegraph (talking about pop, this is an ultimate compliment)
"deserves to be a hit. It is packed with brilliant, cutting-edge pop music." It's lack of success was "the public's loss".
The Guardian
"a brilliant collection of sophisticated dancefloor songs and quite frankly, one of the most stunning albums of the year."
Londonist
"My pants are unable to withhold the giant sequoia I have for this woman and her producers' music"
Chumbletron Peebleton
"Probably the third greatest Stevens in history behind Shakin' and Thaddeus"
BBC History
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