Girls Add ‘Spice’ to Sassy Sound

Smacking of a prepackaged dance-hall Monkees, this English group’s music and publicity (which whittles the Spice Girls down to the fashion vixen, the cute innocent, the sport hotty, etc.) feel shamelessly one-dimensional--even if it’s all in the name of fun. Peppered with some prefab street attitude, this is a sassy yet never smart album tailor-made for radio stations who miss the old Madonna.

“Wannabe,” the first single and a runaway hit, is a bubblegum hip-hop confection of rapping lifted off Neneh Cherry and Monie Love albums, canned grooves and musty beats, and a first taste of what the Girls call “girl power”: “If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends.” The rest is Stevie Wonder, Lisa Stansfield and Wham! rehashed as bland sitcom pop.