By now, all the artists who rode on the new-wave
of teen pop at the turn of the century have either faded into obscurity
(Michelle Branch, Mandy Moore) or successfully freed themselves from their
shackles and evolved into bona-fied superstars (Britney, XTina, Justin). So
where does that put t.A.T.u? Granted, they arrived at the tail-end of the
teen-pop boom, but they were still as frivolous as anything else provided by
the genre, so they more than qualify. Well, they eventually dumped their
management which allowed their second album, 2005’s “Dangerous and Moving”, to
become more ‘real’ than their debut, but their misstep came when also dumping
the image of two lesbian school girls and instead just became ordinary working
musicians. And let’s face it, would t.A.T.u even exist if it wasn’t for that sapphic gimmick? Well their audience
didn’t think so, and “Dangerous and Moving” sold a fifth of their previous
release. When faced with such a disappointment, why put out another record?
Especially now that they’re literally all-grown up, they certainly can’t get
brownie points for being cute anymore. Well, Julia and Lena approached their
third album, “Waste Management”, pretty much the same way they approached their
last album: they once again opted to work with different collaborators, they
continued to improve their diction and singing voices, and while “Dangerous and
Moving” was heavy on guitars and strings, this record strips all of that away,
pushing the electronic quotient and taking their graceless lyrics to the dance
floor. This would seemingly just make a slicker, sleeker re-make of “Dangerous
and Moving”, but this time, there’s one key difference. Unlike that album,
“Waste Management” dumps Trevor Horn and Martin Kierszenbaum, the two
hit-makers behind “Not Gonna Get Us” and “All The Things She Said”, and instead
works with Vanya Kilar, who helms five of the eleven tracks here. Also around
is T.A. music and Billy Steinberg, who worked with The Veronicas in the
mid-2000s. This was a wise decision, because now that Julia and Lena are fully
free from the trappings on their debut, their new production team crafts songs
that actually fit their voices, never straying too high or too low and always
wringing power out of their slight, but now capable, vocals. Musically, this
isn’t much of a departure from “Dangerous and Moving”—the dance tracks still
tend to be clinical and just like last time, we have plenty of dramatics on the
surface that ultimately don’t lead up to any sort of thrilling climax—but it’s
also a welcome change of pace from the dogged seriousness of proving t.A.T.u to
be a serious band. Of course it isn’t, it will always be a creature of pop
culture, bolstered to fame through images rather than sound quality. “Waste
Management” cultivates the best aspects of the band, and while it continues to
remake “Not Gonna Get Us”—last time we had “All About Us”, now we have the
sound-alike “You and I”—and promptly re-hashes it to diminished returns
throughout the record, it’s also the first time that this band has had any
remote sense of fun.
Recommended Tracks in Bold:
1. White
Robe 2. You and I 3. Sparks
4. Snowfalls 5.
Martian Eyes 6. Little People
7. Waste Management 8. Running Blind 9. Fly on the Wall
10. Time of the Moon 11. Don’t Regret
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