The first time I heard those wearisome spoken words of Never Ever float out of the radio, I was 8 years old and thought that these must be the coolest females in existence. As if all the sulking, trendy big sisters that I knew had began harmonising together and wearing big puffy trousers.
They were a perfect girl group alternative to the crazy, fun, colourful ,early learning girl power feminism of The Spice Girls that had almost taken over in 1997.
Queue an All Saints reform this year: get your bandanas and camo trousers, quick!
I can (hopefully) see a garage collaboration not dissimilar to Melanie Blatt’s dalliance with Artful dodger (twentyfourseven-2001).
My ideal comeback song for them right now would be Melanie’s silky vocals over one of Craig David’s well-welcomed garage resurgence singles, with the beautifully freckled Shaznay offering a little MC-ing in the corner.
As dear old Craig said of his own revival last year, ‘people grew up with my music…they’re looking back at some of the best times….thankfully my music was part of that whole generation growing up’
All Saints can definitely relate to that sentiment.
I think these ladies are just as relevant now as they were in the 90’s; their chilled, soulful, R + B inspired pop which merged easily into slow subtle breakbeats and garage notes can slot in nicely to the mainstream scene right now.
I’m so excited to see what they have next now that their generation is a little more grown up (but still not ready to let go of their 90’s pop girl heroines).
Top 5 All Saints songs
1. Never Ever
2. I know where it’s at
3. Black coffee
4. Pure Shores
5. Bootie call
Editor: @jwicksy5
