Review Summary: Sweat baby, sweat.
Melanie C’s ninth studio album,
Sweat, isn’t the type of music I’d typically listen to; that being said however, there’s something wholesome and ironic with this record when you consider the underlying theme chosen. I’m just surmising, but going off the album title, artwork, and dance-flavoured titular single, I’m going to take a stab in the dark and say this is meant to be enjoyed while you’re working out. Of course, when you consider her schtick in Spice Girls was being the “sporty” one, it feels rather fitting to see Mel arranging a record around this mantra. And so, that’s exactly what you’re getting here – a collection of tempo-raising dance numbers designed to give you a sweat-on. I hadn’t listened to a note of this prior to reviewing it, so I didn’t know what to expect going into it, but having “Sweat” open up the record was a wise decision as it’s not only the strongest number on here, but one that sets the tone right away. Everything thereafter manages to maintain “Sweat”’s entertaining standard for the most part, with strong instrumentals that do a good job of being contemporary and reverent to dance music from the 90s at the same time. There’s a couple of duds in the forgettable “Drum Machine”, “Cashmere” and the Dua Lipa worshipped “Attitude”, but on the whole this is a fun record that’ll see you coasting through it with ease. My only gripe with
Sweat is that because it’s a dance album, there’s not much wiggle room for Mel to display her excellent vocals in any meaningful sense. The last few tracks deliver in this regard, I guess, but on the whole, you’re getting looped, repetitious hooks that are accommodating the style of music being run with. Overall though, Melanie continues to deliver new music to a great standard, which, given how long she’s been in the game, is testament to her talents.
