The internet briefly went into meltdown on Wednesday as four previously unreleased Spice Girls songs appeared online, only to be taken down early on Thursday morning.

The songs are believed to have been recorded at the same time as their third and final studio album Forever, which was released in 2000. Their titles are ‘A Day In Your Life’, ‘Pain Proof’, ‘If It’s Lovin’ Your On Mind’ and ‘Right Back At Ya’. The last of these is an alternative version of the one that actually appeared on Forever.

Spice Girls
A still from the video for the Spice Girls' 1997 single 'Who Do You Think You Are'

The tracks date from the time that the Spice Girls were only a foursome, as Geri Halliwell had quit the group in 1998 after the Spiceworld Tour. She did, however, rejoin the group (Victoria Beckham, Emma Bunton, Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm) for the series of reunion tours and the Greatest Hits album in 2007.

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A special one-off performance was arranged for the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Summer Olympics, and a musical, entitled 'Viva Forever', was launched the same year, but the prospects of anything else have been dim. Their final album, from which these offcut tracks are taken, was much less successful than its two predecessors, partly because of the change of musical direction from teen pop to mature R&B.

The four songs appeared on the streaming service SoundCloud on Wednesday, probably as the result of a leak, judging by their removal less than twenty four hours later. Now that they’re out there, it seems inconceivable that the four songs won’t eventually be given an official release in one form or another. Perhaps to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of their debut in 2016?

We wouldn’t put too much money on this leading to another official reunion, however.

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