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47 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Listen to TATY before you check out T.a.T.u., October 27, 2002
I first heard TATY about 16 months ago, when my friend returned from Kyrgyzstan, after a two-year stint in the Peace Corps. He came back with a copy of the Russian language "200km/h In The Wrong Lane" album by TATY. After the first listen, I was hooked.As a fan of punk and indie-rock, the usual euro-dance stuff makes my stomach turn. When I travel through Europe I make sure to bring my own music, because what is played on radio and MTV over there is utter garbage (even worse than our MTV!). But TATY struck me as different. Besides the fact that the group consisted of two extremely cute Russian girls, dressed in Catholic School girl uniforms, the songs were well constructed, well sung, and damn catchy. I introduced the band to a bunch of my friends, all of who were as initially cautious of TATY as I was. I can honestly say that every single one of them, most of whom think that dance music is the downfall of Western civilization, fell in love with TATY. TATY formed in 1999, and their first single, "Ya Soshla S Uma (I've Lost My Mind)", was first played on Russian radio in the late summer of 2000. In May 2001, their debut album was released, and sold something like 4.5 million legal and illegal copies throughout Russia and the former Soviet Republics. A friend living in Moscow has told me that since the summer of 2000, TATY has saturated the airwaves in the former CCCP, with their songs and videos being played every few seconds. The schtick with TATY is that the two girls in the group, Lena and Yulia, are lesbian lovers. Many of the songs on the album dealt with two young girls in love having to deal with their parents and society frowning at them. As you can tell, this led to controversy and fame. The Russian language video for "Ya Soshla S Uma" had the two girls frolicking in plaid mini-skirts in the rain, making out with each other. Reports would frequently be leaked to the media that the girls were fighting with each other because they would catch each other flirting with fans at their concerts. And during these concerts, the girls perform in white tanktops, white panties, and blue kneepads. How they are going to pull their act off in puritanical America, I have no idea. So now TATY has become T.a.T.u. for an American and Western European audience. Their album has been redubbed in English, and supposedly they will be touring the world shortly. If this were a review for the original Russian language version of "All The Things She Said/I've Lost My Mind", I would have to give the record five stars, forgetting the lesbian act, which is musically irrelevant. (I do however give the girls, and their handlers, props because Russia is far from being a homosexually-tolerant nation. They definitely are pushing the envelope over there.) So yes, TATY is good: the beats to their songs are absolutely fantastic, their voices shriek and wail like no one elses, and the drumming at the end of "Nas Ne Dagonyat", is so damn intense, it sounds like something off of an Aphex Twin track. Nevertheless, this English language single irks me, as I am sure the full-length album will. The song is virtually as catchy as the original, but it is still bothersome. I am always angered when artists compromise the validity of their work and their culture so that they can infiltrate the English speaking American market. Just because a lot of us Americans are too ignorant and intolerant to go see a foreign-language film (Oh God, subtitles! Get away get away!), that doesn't mean it should be remade by an American studio and Americanized (The Ring staring Naomi Watts being the most recent culprit.) This also pertains to foreign-language music, which shouldn't be butchered so that we can listen to foreign music in our own language. This first single is entitled, "All The Things She Said". The problem is that the Russian original was called "Ya Soshla S Uma", or "I'VE LOST MY MIND". Big difference. This version barely conveys the meaning of the original lyrics, mostly because they are totally different. The words were not translated, only scrapped and rewritten anew. Furthermore, the song sounds so much cooler in Russian! It flows much more smoothly in the original tongue. Luckily, the original Russian track is included on the full-length CD, but the problem there is that because there are two versions of the same song, one of the original Russian tracks has been cut from the record. By the way, I don't speak Russian. I know some basic phrases and how to count, but that is it. Still, I fell in love with the Russian TATY. When I wanted to know what the girls were saying, I went on the net and checked. It wasn't that difficult. ...it's hard to give a reason as to why someone shouldn't purchase this CD single, just so they can become familiar with TATY/T.a.T.u. (Well you can download it instead!). But when the English language version of 200km/h comes out in December, I must advise to stay away from it until you hear the original Russian version. Besides the fact that the English version is missing some of the original tracks (but does include Clowns, a single which came out after the original album was released, but this version is in English, ugh!), the song lyrics are totally incorrect and the flow of the songs have been changed! I recommend checking out the real Russian TATY first, the unadulterated, CORRECT version of the group. Don't settle for a tainted product just because it is in English. Import the original CD from Russia, find a local Russian CD store, or search for it online, and pick it up. You can usually find it for less than [a few] dollarsThen, and only then, check out the new Westernized version.
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