1998 All Saints: Bootie Call

After mixed fortunes from playing away, All Saints derive more success from this home game song that lives up to their urban, street wise image, even if they don't quite manage to knock the ball out of the park. For once, 'Bootie Call's skeletal hip hop stylings mixed with predatory sass and attitude puts clear water between them and those Spice Girls (surely the only reason for their existence) to deliver a song that crackles and steams with a grown up sexuality or at least the promise of it. An over reliance on some flat harmonising (never an All Saints virtue) threatens to send it skidding into a ditch, but the strength of the underlying song, quality of production and constant ear prick of 'telephone voice' samples maintain interest levels high enough to keep a firm grip on the wheel until it manages to complete the race with gas to spare, albeit sufficiently hamstrung so it doesn't come in first.