page_title: Too Much (Spice Girls song)
section_title: Critical response
hierarchical_section_title: Too Much (Spice Girls song) / Reception / Critical response
caption_attribution_description: Baby Spice from LV Concert
context_page_description: "Too Much" is a song by English girl group the Spice Girls from their second studio album, Spiceworld. The group members co-wrote the song with its producers, Paul Wilson and Andy Watkins—the songwriting and production duo known as Absolute—while the group was shooting scenes for their film Spice World.
  "Too Much" is a pop ballad with influences of R&B. It features instrumentation from a guitar, brass and string instruments, and is structured using doo-wop records as a template. The music video, directed by Howard Greenhalgh, features each Spice Girl in their own individual scene playing different characters, inspired by their own film fantasies. The song received mixed reviews from music critics, with many of them criticising the R&B-infused production.
  Released as the album's second single on 15 December 1997, it topped the UK Singles Chart for two weeks, becoming the group's second consecutive Christmas number-one single, and their sixth consecutive chart-topper, which made them the first act to have its first six singles reach number one in the United Kingdom. It was moderately successful internationally, peaking inside the top 20 on the majority of the charts that it entered.
context_section_description: "Too Much" received mixed reviews from critics. Sylvia Patterson of NME characterised the song as a "lavish, harmonised spree of New Orleans loveliness with strings and Spanish guitar", adding that it is "the absolute tops!". Ian Hyland of the Sunday Mirror enjoyed the track, but felt that Chisholm sounded "daft", and added that she needs to "calm down on the scouse front". David Browne of Entertainment Weekly called it a "sultry slow jam", while the Miami Herald dubbed the song a "silky pop ode" and called it "irresistible". The Virginian-Pilot described the strings on the song as "classic soul with a 90s tweak". Larry Flick of Billboard magazine praised the song, describing it as a "swishy classic-pop ballad that tickles the ear with tasty doo-wop flavors", and added that the arrangement and the group's harmonies "work extremely well together". Sputnikmusic's Amanda Murray also complimented the track, calling it a "genuinely great song". Murray also felt that the group's voices had improved so that they could "pull off more difficult passages with at least an iota of conviction".
  Some reviewers criticised the R&B-infused production. In a review of Spiceworld, the Contra Costa Times said that the album's ballads such as "Too Much" and "Viva Forever" are "both treacly and deadly dull". Conversely, Gina Arnold of Salon said that the ballads are "blander but still appealing". The Sun-Sentinel's Sean Picolli viewed the song as "a sincere stab at instructional R&B". Richard Harrington of The Washington Post described it as a "lugubrious ballad", while Scott Schinder of Newsday said that "the contempo-R&B schmaltz of 'Too Much' [...] mires the group in middle-of-the-road mediocrity". J.D. Considine of The Baltimore Sun was not convinced by the song's "attempts at deep emotional expression", and Anthony Violenti of The Buffalo News said that it is "supposed to be a heart tugging ballad that may even make the Spice Girls fan base of 10-year olds overdose on sugar".
caption: Emma Bunton performing "Too Much" during The Return of the Spice Girls Tour in Las Vegas, December 2007
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