The comeback
So, here's the story: the girls of t.A.T.u are coming back to us, in an upgraded version, with their second album, with different musical style, with a new manager and new producers. Yulia Volkova and Lena Katina, that stormed the pop-world 3 years ago with their hit "All the things she said", grew up. They're 20 years old now and the image of rebelling lesbian schoolgirls, that was only a commercial gimmick, remains a pale memory in the dark past of the most popular Russian band of all times.
Why dark? Because with all the respect (and there is a respect), t.A.T.u really annoyed us in their past life. To those who don't remember, we can tell that t.A.T.u supposed to visit Israel with a short concert-tour, as a promotion for their debut album "200 k/h In A Wrong Lane". But guess what? They shamelessly turned us down the last minute, and didn't even step on the Israeli land!
The official reason for the canceling was problems with visas. But we know something else. The concerts were canceled because there were not enough tickets sold. The same month, other concerts in Latvia and Japan were canceled as well. Of course, Yulia and Lena themselves didn't take the decision, the one to blame is their managers, but still, this story was stinking from lack of professionalism, and t.A.T.u turned out to be a sad joke. Even we here, in Rosh Ehad, banned them for some time as a protest against such rude canceling.
Find the differences
The time to give the girls a second chance had come. Now, when problems and unsure opinions about their sexual orientation is far behind them (at least, that's what they want us to believe), Yulia and Lena did their comeback again with "Dangerous and Moving" - their second album, which includes the big hit "All about us".
"The changes we went through are big and edgy.", explains the red hair Lena. She explains what stands behind t.A.T.u today. "We've grown up, matured, we see life in different light. Our music also advanced as a result." Yulia joins the conversation and adds: "We wanted to take active part in the creation of the new album, that's why we were involved in production on all levels, starting from writing, to the recoding, and the final mixes. "Dangerous and moving" presents t.A.T.u in it's most pure vision".
The main difference of t.A.T.u today from t.A.T.u of the past, is that producer Ivan Shapovalov, the man who actually created the band, was kicked last year, not without lawsuits on authors rights, a lot of scandals (the girls argued with Ivan on live, the guy was blamed on exploiting underage teenagers, etc.), and countless rumors (about Lena's' solo career.)
English is a tough language
So, with help of a group of producers and managers, the girls hit the roads again. At first, there were discussions about changing the bands' name, but at last, they've decided to stay with their old familiar and catchy name. The girls moved to LA to record a new album, and cooperated with some of many appreciated figures of the music-industry, as Dave Stuart from the Eurythmix and Sting, who plays the bass part in the song "Friend or Foe".
"The biggest challenge of living in LA was to learn English", recalls Yulia. "Until then, the only English we knew was the one we learned at school in Russia. Very Basic English, which didn't allow to communicate with other people. We had to practice a lot to improve our English", by this she actually admits that she and Lena just memorized meaningless (at least for them) words when they recorded their first album.
Are they or aren't they?
Actually, who cares? It's obvious that they will say that they matured, and all this crap every artist says many times upon a new release. Give us the juicy details! What was this lesbian thing about? From where the girls found the strength to go on after all they've been through?
"We know each other for 10 years - half of our life", reveals Lena. " Press wrote a lot of lies about us all this time. The journalists just abused us to sell more of their papers". Maybe that's why their new video attacks the press openly, by presenting head-lines such as: "Are they or aren't they lesbians?", "Have the best friends turned into enemies?
"The idea of the video is to break the stereotype and stigmas that surround us", explains Yulia. "Actually, it's a parody on what we've been through, how we turned to be victims of prejudice. We were labeled just as homosexuals and lesbians are labeled. Were is tolerance?!"
Wait a second, does that mean they ARE lesbians? Finally Lena gives an answer: "We never said we're lesbians. We never announced anything. The press did it for us. We were always asked if we were lesbians, but that's not the right question. They should ask if our video made people realize that there is nothing wrong when people of the same sex love each other, but no one bothered to ask!" Yulia continues, as always: "When we kissed, we did it from the heart. We really loved each other, and we still do. Now we have boyfriends, but it shouldn't matter to people if we're dating or we aren't."
Lena and Yulia really wants you to take them seriously. "We feel that we're surrounded by soulless people who have no feelings", complains Yulia. "It has to change! The key for this is to keep your mind open, and not to judge anyone. We receive a lot of fan letters and all have something in common: people who wrote them, they all suffer from lack of love. This is all human, off course, but we want to give those people hope, that someday they'll find their love."
"Dangerous and moving" album review
With all the respect to t.A.T.u's claims about new sound, we didn't actually find it in the new album. We recognized the pop-rock-electronic sound of t.A.T.u from the first notes and you can definitely see it as a continuation to the first album. It's not so bad.
Except "All about us", which is definitely the best song in the album, we enjoyed listening to the ballad "Craving" and the leading song "Dangerous and moving". Their next single "Friend or Foe" also shows big potential to become a huge hit. By the way, Russian speaking readers will be happy to find 2 songs in their native language, a jest of t.A.T.u's to mother-Russia.
Rosh Ehad, Israel
Translation: Ev for tatu.ru
Edited: TatySite.net Team
November 2005 |
