Let’s get this out there up right up front: I love this song. Space’s 1997 single, “Female of the Species” (download), is one of the funnest songs of the ’90s, with its kitschy steel drums, Doris Day strings and lead singer Tommy Scott’s camp delivery (particularly on the line “shock, shock, horror, horror, shock shock horror,” which never fails to crack me up). Mixing elements of the Kinks, the Who and early ’90s Blur Britpop, Space concocted a tasty brew that hit big in the U.K. and even crossed over to Stateside MTV and radio.
So the question now is: did Space do anything close to matching this stellar single? Their one-hit wonder status would lead one to instantly assume “no,” but the Spiders album on the whole isn’t half bad. Early indie single “Me and You vs the World” (download) shows up again with all its Kinks charm and “Neighborhood,” the sneeringly comedic “Money,” and the Charlatans UK-ish freakout “Drop Dead” make it well worth the 68¢ it currently sells for used on Amazon. Plus, many copies come with an extra CD with two b-sides and an instrumental version of “Female of the Species” ready-made for car karaoke fun.
Three more albums have followed Spiders, the most recent being 2004’s Suburban Rock ‘n’ Roll, but unlike the bargain Spiders is, check out how much coin the later releases grab. Yowza.
“Female of the Species” peaked at #15 on the Billboard Modern Rock Chart in 1997.
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Tags: John C. Hughes, Lost in the '90s, Space
