tATu ‘Waste Management’.

Christmas 2021 I purchased a copy of a CD that had been around for a good ten years, it was by faux Russian lesbians tATu.

Now, when I first heard about this duo, reading about them in a magazine, I can’t say that I was interested in what they had to offer musically, it all sounded a bit contrived, put together to create controversy.

Towards the end of 2002 I was in the HMV store in Stockport when ‘All the Things She Said’ came over the PA system, ‘What the f###!’ I thought to myself, ‘this is amazing’ I immediately purchased the CD single. I then went on to purchase their two albums which were just as good as the single and then, nothing, it all went very quiet The duo eventually split, there followed some dodgy cosmetic surgery for one of them with both of them also giving birth and starting families.

However, I’m not interested in their private lives, unknown to me they had recorded the album ‘Waste Management’ and that had passed me by, that was until, as I said, last year when I bagged a copy.

It was with slight apprehension that I approached the album, was I about to be disappointed, was it just going to be mindless pop music? After all, as far as I was concerned the album hadn’t really been promoted over in the UK back when it was released, the fact that they had left their record label Interscope for TA music was probably the reason so maybe I was about to be disappointed.          However I listened to the CD and let me tell you something, this album is superb, it immediately went into the list of my top albums of all time, possibly top 5! I’ve been listening to the CD virtually non-stop for the last year. 

However, it is tATu’s least successful album, the style is more electronic than their previous albums and with a new production team it is a new direction. Most notably composer Eugenly Matveitsey helped create what the girls call a concept of continuity. All the tracks are linked by Matveitsey’s music which creates a concept style album and tracks like ‘You and Me’, ‘Little People’, and ‘Fly on the Wall’ are incredibly good. The album demands to be listened to as a whole experience and not as individual tracks.

Basically ‘Waste Management’ is worth seeking out, it’s exciting, innovative and beautifully  conceived, worth buying if you’d like to give your ears a treat. Okay, this is just my opinion but I fully believe, just like me, anybody coming to this album for the first time will love it. 

Just in case you’re getting suspicious, no, I’m not on their payroll……. check it out!