What’s not to like about this band? They’re two
impossibly cute, Russian lesbian school-girls who have girlish voices and cute
Europop to match. Well, at least that’s how their Svengali manager packages
them anyway. Well before this album’s official release, t.A.T.u became a
somewhat inescapable worldwide phenomenon late-2002, making headlines not just
with the gimmick of lesbianism, but the fact that everyone involved was so
earnest in making sure everyone knew who this band was. This publicity push
helped get the singles on the radio, most notably “All The Things She Said”,
accompanied with a video that milks band members Lena and Julia for all their
cuteness and innocence—so much so it borders on being creepy. However, cute
images don’t make good records, and all that chatter surrounding the image of
this band no doubt takes precedence over the music. And that’s too bad, because
there are actually plenty of good songs here. To start, we have the best track,
the insistent “Not Gonna Get Us”, and this leads us into “All The Things She
Said”, which is suggestive enough on its own without the wet school-girl image
to accompany it. We then delve into two ballads, the stunning “Show Me Love”
(no doubt an anthem for the LGBT community come next year) and “30 Minutes”,
which makes the most out of the listless vocals of the girls. Predictably, “How
Soon Is Now?” makes an appearance, executed in the same pop- heavy style that
you’d expect from producer Martin Kierzszenbaum. Past this, we have one more
song worthy of attention, the surprisingly progressive “Malchik Gay”, which
blends acoustic guitar with Pro-Tools and some thick dance beats for good
measure. After, we encounter one final ballad “Stars”, and then the last three
songs are simply Russian remixes of the beginning tracks, as well as the pretty
good remix of “Show Me Love”. This last stretch of the record isn’t necessary
in the slightest, and its only purpose is to fill out the disc’s running time,
but all things considered, this is a sort of beguiling debut that is much
better than t.A.T.u’s gauche gimmick led us to believe. It certainly has its
setbacks—Julia and Lena might have cute voices, but when fed through the
computer are flattened, piercing, and chipped—but as a whole, it’s an easy to
enjoy set of hollow Europop. Since the only thing that “200 km/h in the Wrong
Lane” tries to achieve is the gimmick of two lesbian Russian school girls, is
there really anything else this album needs to be successful?
Recommended Tracks in Bold:
1. Not
Gonna Get Us 2. All The Things
She Said 3. Show Me Love
4. 30 Minutes 5.
How Soon is Now? 6. Clowns
7. Malchik
Gay 8. Stars 9.
Ya Soshla S Uma
10. NaS Ne Dagoniat 11. Show Me Love (Extended Remix)
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