Ian Sime gets two former Spice Girls together... on disc.

The musical blueprint of Geri's and Mel B's solo ventures has not deviated from The Spice Girls in their prime.

Both still come over as Nice Girls having fun in the music biz, singing of positivity, fulfilment and love... a lot about love.

Not-so-scary Mel still concentrates on R&B, while Geri covers everything from Hi-NRG Euro pop to Cole Porter pastiches and everything in between. To her credit, Ms Halliwell's comic and lush ballads Passion and So I Give Up On Love are a joy, illustrating she is so much more than your average conveyor-belt pop star.

Geri should be presenting Saturday music variety shows on the telly... just like Cilla and Lulu used to. Despite her thin vocal abilities, Geri is a huge star, and we love her.

Melanie obviously attempts to be a touch more sophisticated than Geri would ever want to be.

Her collection is joyful and ripened by Californian sunshine, and she even manages to have fun lyrically on the highlight track, LA State Of Mind. The album sounds rather dated, not in a bad way, but somehow sunny pop does not fit with the harder-edged R&B of today.

Both albums are expertly executed, pleasant but, unfortunately, it's not new records we want from these girls: it's The Reunion. Come on girls.

Give us what we want... what we really, really want.

Updated: 09:14 Thursday, June 23, 2005