One Of The Best Girl Bands Ever!
Ian Creamer | Dublin,Ireland | 01/22/2002
(4 out of 5 stars)
"What a pity it was that the All Saints decided to call it a day.Their last album,while it wasn't great had plenty of great tracks and I'm sure this group was only beginning to realise their full potential.They sort of got big when the Spice Girls were sort of at their hey-day.But where as the Spice Girls were very much for younger fans,All Saints were always a band that had a certain degree of adult sophistication.This was evident from their first number one hit "Never Ever",which had beautiflly soulful layered harmonies.It was clear from the off that All Saints were going to be more R/B then just a manufactured pop band.Another track included here is their brave cover of the Red Hot Chili Peppers track-"Under The Bridge".I don't know there are certain tracks I feel nobody should try to cover and this is one of them.At first I thought it was almost sacrilige,but in retrospect when I listen to it on this album,I feel it's a very worthy effort.It's full of break beats and stops-they even dare to disrupt the guitar riff.It's got an even more 'street' feel to it then the original.All their early tracks featured here are just pure R/B with a slight garage feel.By the time the second album came along they had enlisted the help of producer extrodinaire William Orbit.He has a pretty distinctive sound and there are lots of similarities in this track to madonna's "Ray Of Light".No matter what though,"Pure Shores" taken from The Beach soundtrack is an amazing song.In fact it was the biggest single of the year it was released in the U.K.Another great track on this c.d. was it's follow up,"Black Coffee".Once again Orbits does production work,but it's got a harder,meatier feel to it.Once again the harmonies are really lush but the beat is pretty phat.It's almost like the Chemical Brother's meet Ray Of Light.The ending to this track is great as it fades out to a harsh sound. I think this c.d. is ideal for people who do not own any of their other c.d.'s.They never made a truly great album,so this takes off the bad tracks from both,so you're just left with their very best work.It's just a pity they've all gone their separate ways."
All Quality.
Chris | Sydney, Australia | 11/10/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"From a strict diet of the meaningless but glorious pap pop of the Spice Girls, their credible counterparts All Saints took me a while to properly digest. I hated them at first, gained some interest, hated them again, then gained a bit more interest.The girls managed to create two sorts of songs. First and foremost, they could make absolutely classic pop/R'n'B songs which made the Spice Girls look like the Tellitubbies. Unfortunately, on the flipside they created right and proper dirge which most artists wouldn't even allow to be released as B-sides. Luckily, 'All Hits' captures the best of the girls' releases which fell into the former category giving them an unprecedented run of success in the British charts over four years despite having only two albums to their name.The classy balladry of 'Never Ever', 'War Of Nerves' and the sexy rendering of Red Hot Chili Peppers heroin-ballad 'Under The Bridge' sit side by side with rump-wrigglers 'Booty Call' and 'Lady Marmalade'. Of course the band's career triumphs - namely the dreamy 'Pure Shores' and 'Black Coffee', both #1 hits from the girls' second album 'Saints & Sinners' - are included in all their glory, as is Melanie Blatt's fabulously breezy solo outing 'twentyfourseven'. A couple of unlisted bonus tracks, 'I Feel You' and 'Dreams' from the 'Saints & Sinners' record, suggests there was a lot more fire left in this band which was quelled by their personal problems which untimely lead to the band's demise.This is a concise but fully satisfying chronicle of the girlband of the nineties with the most musical integrity. This swathe of filling R'n'B jams, booty-shakers and dreamy mid-tempos makes for is the perfect souvenir for both the casual fan and All Saints diehard."
What the title says - ALL hits!
Mark | UK | 01/25/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Greatest hits collection usually span around 5 or more albums - that's not the case with this one! The All Saints collection 'All Hits' spans the best of just 2 amazing classic pop albums! This is a collection you can listen throughout the duration and not feel the need to skip any tracks. Nearly all of these songs are still played on radio and music channels which is pretty rare seeing as not many pop acts from 5 years ago can say they are a still a regular fixture on radio etc. All Saints, at the time were so different from their other pop counterparts, they delivered pop with a dirty, slick urban feel and paved the way for future girl groups such as Sugababes, who themselves are yet to release a poor album or single.The album is started with my personal All Saints favourite 'Pure Shores', the backing music, the harmonies, everything about this song is pure perfection.
This is followed by 'Never Ever', possibly one of the best pop ballads of all time, this was easily the Saints' biggest hit spending over 20 weeks on the UK chart alone and smashing into the US Billboard Top 10!
From there on the hits just keep coming! The best of which are the slick, sexy cover of Red Hot Chili Peppers' classic 'Under The Bridge', debut single 'I Know Where It's At' and the quite simply AMAZING 'Black Coffee'.All Saints only released 8 singles (5 of which #1's) so the inclusion of Melanie Blatt's collaboration with Artful Dodger on the mesmerising 'Twentyfourseven' and the 'Pure Shores' remix are not too surprising but also don't tamper with the flow of the album.Greatest Hits collections are a favourite with a lot of people and 'All Hits' is definately one of the best I've ever heard."
Track Listings (11) - Disc #1