Mutya Keisha Siobhan – previously known as the originally Sugababes, AKA the Origibabes – kicked off their would-have-been comeback with the best song of 2013 in “Flatline” – and then promptly fell off the face of the Earth in a fit of pushbacks, leaks, copyright battles and babies.
We did get an entire album’s worth of what would have been their (re-)debut album at the very end of 2016. And we’re still getting more from the MKS vaults up to this very day.
“Love Me Hard” is a song that was confirmed as cut nearly five (!) years ago during their Polydor sessions for what was expected to be their 2014 studio album, produced by Biff Stannard and Ash Howes (the legendary Biffco team behind the Spice Girls) and co-written alongside Iain James.
At one point, the girls even performed the song during their showcase at Scala in the summer of ’13.
In any case, the studio version’s finally found its way online as of this month.
It’s a bittersweet listen: sweet because it’s sublime sonically, and bitter as fuck because no matter how good it is, it’s unlikely that the MKS project will ever find legs to formally lift off – despite the endless promises made by the bandmates over the past few years.
As with everything MKS, the harmonies are heaven-sent and the melodies are the stuff of a timeless pop girl group classic. (And that’s just judging the song as it sounds right now, in its current state. Who knows how finished this version even is?) They all sound phenomenal, but Keisha Buchanan, especially, steals the show with her stunning vocals on the bridge.
“Don’t have to speak at all…”
Oh, babes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnwlW7QWgag
Photo by Ophelia Wynne for ES Magazine.
