Studio 1

by

All Saints

Edit

How unfortunate that this gigantic flop by the All Saints turns out to be their greatest album ever. There is absolutely no justification for the dismal performance this scored on the charts, especially considering that this is by far their most musically diverse, and consistently engaging record since their two huge hit singles from 2000 ("Pure Shores" and "Black Coffee").

Chances are, that if you loved both those landmark singles, you will end up loving this album as a whole. They all have some of the same qualities these singles possessed, coupled with some excellent harmonizing from all four members. Shaznay, who is the most unusual of the four vocalists, continues to hog the limelight, though this isn't a bad thing - even though all the All Saints members are older and hopefully wiser, the songs are still as light and carefree as ever, with common themes such as love, life, dating and relationships taking center stage.

Lead single "Rock Steady" is probably what led this album to obscurity. It's a nice-enough track, but there is absolutely nothing special about it other than the sing-along chorus that you'll find yourself remembering after one listen. "Rock Steady" isn't the weakest track on the album - that award would go to "Chick Fit", a two-step number that sounds like it belongs on a totally different record. For reasons best known to the producers, this track was released as the official second single, and it disappeared the very week it was released.

Pity, because real stunners such as "On and On" (which is very reminiscent of "Pure Shores"), and "Fundamental" (which capsulates the best of their work in one three minute track), highlight what works on this album. "One Me and U" sounds very much like what their first record sounded like, while the rest of the tracks are a definite progress over much of what they used to churn out.

Whats pretty great is that every track here is a standout, and any one of these could be a radio single. Whats even more wondrous is that the girls actually sound better here than they did on their last record "Saints and Sinners" (which had about five great songs and a lot of filler).

Lets face it - this album is going to go down as a spectacular flop, and probably is the last thing the All Saints will ever release. Ironically, its also the best, most realized work they've recorded, and is a stupendous achievement any way you look at it. I mean, the quality of music is much better than what the Spice Girls did when they got together on "Forever" (their comeback CD).

If you like great girl-group harmonizing, sunny happy melodies, and choruses you won't soon forget, this is definitely the album for you. Don't read the other reviews, just get this!

All Saints started getting notice in the U.S. around 1998 when "Never Ever" was big, but they were also easily compared to Spice Girls. After that it seemed like both groups were trying to outdo each other, but soon they both broke up. Well, All Saints got back together back in 2006 and released their third studio album, Studio 1.

The reason why I'm now comparing the ladies to Destiny's Child is because this album feels like DC's The Writing's on the Wall in that there are a lot of songs about trifling men. But the problem here is that the lyrics aren't that exciting. "Not Eazy" and "Scar" are skippable, "Too Nasty" is hard to relate to, and "Hell No" took the words right out of my mouth.

The only song really worth hearing on here is "On and On". And "Fundamental" is passable. I doubt All Saints will gain any new fans with Studio 1, and given that it wasn't released in the U.S. anyway, you can probably do without it.

Anthony Rupert