In this installment, I bring you the self-titled debut (and only) album from Solid HarmoniE. Aww, look how cute it is that they misspell it as “HarmoniE” – that’s so the capital letters spell out “SHE”. Yup, this group’s all about women’s empowerment, or as empowering as you can be while doing flips in a sports bra and track pants. Before we get to that, let’s rewind a bit. You see, Lou Pearlman’s Transcontinental Records wasn’t ALL boybands. Lou wanted to conquer all corners of pop, and he had an assembly line in place to do just that. Former NKOTB manager Johnny Wright handled the boybands, while his wife, Donna, handled the female groups. Of those female groups, only two were notable: Innosense, due to the fact that Britney Spears was briefly a member prior to going solo, and Solid HarmoniE.
Solid HarmoniE was a four-woman pop group, with most of its members hailing from the UK. They followed the Lou Pearlman Model, which meant going over to Germany to gain an audience before being unleashed upon other countries (he had previously done this with Backstreet Boys,*NSYNC, and would later do it with Natural) . This album comes from that stint in Germany. Despite being teased on a Jive Records VHS sampler from ’98, the album never got its US release.
As far as sound goes, Solid HarmoniE is pretty representative of the bubblegum era, yet it brings something new to the table, as there wasn’t a defined “FEMALE bubblegum sound” at the time. So, this allowed them a lot of wiggle room, as far as genre was concerned. At its core, Solid HarmoniE is a fusion of Wilson Philips harmonies, combined with that last drop of Girl Power the group managed to suckle from the spent teats of the Spice Girls. It also doesn’t hurt that they worked with the producer who helped define the 90s bubblegum sound, Max Martin. As a result, this album is chock FULL of hits, all of which you’ve heard before, but with different lyrics. I was going to post the video for their first single, “I’ll Be There For You”, as it’s built over the chord progression of one of my favorite pop songs of all time, “Tearin’ Up My Heart”. Unfortunately, the video’s a piece of shit, even by 90’s standards, filled with the aforementioned track pants and…is that a crystal ball? So, here’s one of their better songs, “I Want You To Want Me”:
My favorite was the one who looked like she probably worked the front desk at the nail place. Yeah, the thick one.
The Wilson Philips influence comes through on “I Wanna Love You”:
Hey, Look! Production Values!
After failing to break out internationally, the group broke up around ’99, with its members scattered across other soon-to-fail girl groups. Seriously, the bubblegum era was not a good time for girl groups; that fan base LOVED seeing 5 cute guys dancing, but they didn’t give a shit about the girlband equivalent (see: SheMoves, Wild Orchid, Innosense; exception: B*Witched). If you wanna learn more about SHE, well,good luck -there are only about 2 websites dedicated to them on the entire internet. I mean, I had to knife a hobo and solve a riddle before I could track this thing down. As a collector of all things 90’s-Era Max Martin, I have to say that it was totally worth it. At the end of the day, I still don’t understand what caused the Powers That Be to pull the plug on the US release. I mean, in a world that tolerates the Pussycat Dolls, there’s sure as Hell a place for Solid HarmoniE.
Oh, what the Hell…
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