"Scream If You Wanna Go Faster" is a song by British singer

Geri Halliwell Geraldine Estelle Halliwell-Horner (''née'' Halliwell; born 6 August 1972) is an English singer, songwriter, television personality, author, and actress. She rose to fame in the mid-1990s as a member of the pop group the Spice Girls, in which ...

from her second album of the same name (2001). It was released on 30 July 2001 as the second single from the album by

EMI Records EMI Records (formerly EMI Records Ltd.) is a British multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was originally founded as a British flagship label by the music company EMI in 1972, and launched in January 1973 as the succes ...

. Written by Halliwell and

Rick Nowels Richard Wright Nowels Jr. (born March 16, 1954) is an American songwriter and record producer. He has co-written and co-produced over 90 hit singles with multiple artists,bulimia Bulimia nervosa, also known simply as bulimia, is an eating disorder characterized by binge eating (eating large quantities of food in a short period of time, often feeling out of control) followed by compensatory behaviors, such as self-induc ...

, she described the song as "the things I did to avoid staying still and deal with my seemings". It is Halliwell's most rock-based song to date, and was inspired by her listening to

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock music, rock band formed in London in 1968. The band comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones (musician), John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham. With a he ...

the previous summer as encouraged by close friend

Robbie Williams Robert Peter Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer and songwriter. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995, launching a solo career in 1996. His debut studio album, ''Life thru a Lens'', was re ...

. The song received positive reviews by music critics, who complimented the singer's new style. Commercially, it peaked at 8 on the UK Singles Chart and reached the top 40 in Australia, Belgium (

Flanders Flanders ( or ; ) is the Dutch language, Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, la ...

and

Wallonia Wallonia ( ; ; or ), officially the Walloon Region ( ; ), is one of the three communities, regions and language areas of Belgium, regions of Belgium—along with Flemish Region, Flanders and Brussels. Covering the southern portion of the c ...

), Ireland, and Italy. The music video was directed by Jim Canty and Jake-Sebastian Wynne. To promote the single, Halliwell performed the song on ''

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British record chart television programme, made by the BBC and broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most of its histo ...

'', ''

Party in the Park Party in the Park is the generic name given to music concerts organised by various radio stations and local authorities and groups in the United Kingdom, typically in large parks during the summer, however it is also used to refer to a family or ...

'', ''Musica Sí'' and

Popkomm Popkomm was an international trade show for the music and entertainment business during the 1990s and 2000s, and also integrated a congress and festival. It was held in Cologne for most of its existence, later moved to Berlin with entries from at ...

Background

described "Scream If You Wanna Go Faster" as "by far the most rock'n'roll song I had ever recorded" ascribing its "adrenaline-packed" feel to her newfound enthusiasm for listening to

as encouraged by her close friend,

. She also elaborated on the song: "The track is based on one of the themes of the album – the child within and the creative fun-loving person that often gets conditioned out of us. I'm just a big kid at heart".

Critical reception

It received positive reviews by music critics, who complimented the singer's new style. Jon O'Brien from ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' named it the 15th best solo single from a Spice Girl, and elaborated that the song "is perhaps her most under-rated single", and noted its "twangy surf-rock guitars, swirling Hammond organs and unabashedly nonsensical lyrics". ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'' gave the song a negative reception by saying: "This is not singing but the sound a seal makes when you run over its stomach in a Land Rover. She is living proof that there is no 'magic machine' in the studio that makes bad voices sound good. This is lyric writing courtesy of the magnetic poetry kit. It’s what happens when you apply the William Burroughs' cut-up technique to self-help manuals".

Chart performance

The song entered the UK Singles Chart at its peak of No. 8, which became the lowest-charting single of Halliwell's career at the time. The single sold 27,458 copies during its first week and about 80,192 copies total in the United Kingdom.

Music video

The accompanying

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

for "Scream If You Wanna Go Faster" was directed by Jim Canty and Jake-Sebastian Wynne. Halliwell plays two characters in the video. She said, "It's kind of like

Lara Croft Lara Croft is a character and the main protagonist of the video game franchise ''Tomb Raider''. She is presented as a highly intelligent and athletic British adventurer and archaeologist who ventures into ancient tombs and hazardous ruins arou ...

meets Blondie. The Lara Croft character, she represents spirit and soul, a little more organic, more playful. Then the (Blondie) character on stage, she's a lot more aggressive and sexual and represents ego." Comparisons were made to the similarly-themed video for

Victoria Beckham Victoria Caroline, Lady Beckham (; born 17 April 1974) is an English fashion designer, singer, and television personality. She rose to prominence in the 1990s as a member of the pop group the Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed Posh Spic ...

's single " Not Such an Innocent Girl"; Halliwell's spokesperson said: "There is no way Geri has seen Victoria's video". The video begins with the Lara Croft Halliwell in a desert in a squat position. As the music starts, she begins to run through the rocks and down a hill before picking up a dune buggy and driving it. Halliwell then sees a cliff and as she reverses the dune buggy, it jumps off the cliff transforming into a space hovercraft racing with two men beside her. As the hovercraft reaches its destination, Halliwell goes inside an elevator which sinks rapidly. She's dancing in the elevator as it proceeds to drop down quickly into the stage where the other Halliwell (the Blondie type) is performing at a concert with her band. The Lara Croft Halliwell kicks the other and her female performers resume dancing along to the song. The video ends with Halliwell looking upon a hill, exhausted.

Track listings

UK CD1 # "Scream If You Wanna Go Faster" – 3:24 # "New Religion" – 3:05 # "Breaking Glass" – 3:37 UK CD2 # "Scream If You Wanna Go Faster" – 3:24 # "Scream If You Wanna Go Faster" – 4:58 # "Scream If You Wanna Go Faster" – 4:25 # "Scream If You Wanna Go Faster" – 7:07 European CD single (version 1) # "Scream If You Wanna Go Faster" – 3:24 # "New Religion" – 3:05 European CD single (version 2) # "Scream If You Wanna Go Faster" – 3:24 # " It's Raining Men" – 4:19 Australian CD single # "Scream If You Wanna Go Faster" – 3:24 # "Scream If You Wanna Go Faster" – 5:02 # "Scream If You Wanna Go Faster" – 7:57 # "Scream If You Wanna Go Faster" – 7:08 # "It's Raining Men" – 8:13

Personnel

Personnel are taken from the ''

Scream If You Wanna Go Faster ''Scream If You Wanna Go Faster'' is the second studio album by British singer Geri Halliwell, released on 14 May 2001 by EMI Records. Following the commercial success of her solo debut album '' Schizophonic'' two years before, the singer began ...

'' album booklet. * Geri Halliwell – writing *

Rick Nowels Richard Wright Nowels Jr. (born March 16, 1954) is an American songwriter and record producer. He has co-written and co-produced over 90 hit singles with multiple artists,Rusty Anderson Rusty Anderson is an American musician best known for his work as lead guitarist for Paul McCartney's touring band since 2001. He has worked with an extensive list of other artists in addition to his own solo career. Career Anderson became a p ...

– electric guitar * Charles Judge – keyboards *

Greg Kurstin Gregory Allen Kurstin (born May 14, 1969) is an American record producer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter. He has won nine Grammy Awards, including Producer of the Year, Non-Classical in 2017 and 2018, and contributed to five songs that pe ...

– keyboards,

Farfisa Farfisa () is a manufacturer of electronics based in Osimo, Italy, founded in 1946. The company manufactured a series of compact electronic organs in the 1960s and 1970s, including the Compact, FAST, Professional and VIP ranges, and later, a se ...

organ * Wayne Rodrigues – drum programming,

Pro Tools Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture (sound design, audio post-productio ...

editing *

Dave Way Dave Way is a Grammy Award winning American producer, mixer and audio engineer based in Los Angeles, California, United States. He has worked with Fiona Apple, Sheryl Crow, Kesha, Pink, Iron And Wine, Fall Out Boy, Al Green, 21 Pilots, Yebba, Vic ...

– mixing * Randy Wine – recording * Chris Garcia – recording * David Dale – recording

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scream If You Wanna Go Faster (Song) 2001 singles 2001 songs EMI Records singles Geri Halliwell songs Song recordings produced by Rick Nowels Songs written by Geri Halliwell Songs written by Rick Nowels