But who would salt a Spice Girl? “When I was in my early 20s, I was in an environment where somebody just really wasn’t nice to me. And I thought, Well, she just doesn’t like me. But then as I got older, I began to realize that that was actually quite mean, and not a very nice way to treat somebody,” she said. (Does this shed some light onto the backstory of "Wannabe," perhaps?) “I think I was quite vulnerable at that time, as well,” she said. "Unfortunately, I think that’s something that lots of people experience.”Version of Me is rooted in situations we couldn’t imagine Sporty, easily dubbed the “Nice Spice,” going through. Like most pop records, it makes you think about universal themes, including things you don't always want to confront: exes, the past, the future, evolving friendships, et al. Unlike some of her her ex-bandmates, Mel C never put the mic down. She’s lived half her life onstage. If you haven’t kept up with her post-Spice Girls career, her debut solo album, Northern Star , sold nearly 4 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling solo Spice Girl album ever, even though it lacked a distinctly uniform sound (the songs ranged from rock to doo-wop to R&B to ambient). Several albums later, she released The Sea , a series of ballad-heavy, remix-ready pop tracks. Stages followed, introducing an era of piano pop befitting someone with a musical theater education, like Melanie, who went to London’s Doreen Bird College of Dance, Music and Theatre Performance.Version Of Me arrives amid the ‘90s nostalgia trip that shows no signs of waning; the Spice Girls are once again a hot topic. But while Sporty was one of five voices in Spice world, Mel C has a new groove. Inspirations for this album included M.Ø. (who she recently joined onstage to co-sing their cover of " Say You’ll Be There "), Sia, Major Lazer, DJ Snake, and more. You can take the girl out of the ‘90s, but...you know how the old adage goes. “If I’m thinking, Oh, I don’t know what to listen to, I listen to bands like Massive Attack and Portishead, and early Zero 7.” In other words: Her '90s influences are legit.