With their slinky, edgy pop, All Saints scored a string of chart
successes from I Know Where It's At to All Hooked Up before a 2001 meltdown
that made the public realise that actually, these girls didn't like each
other very much. Flash forward to 2006 and All Saints are reunited, putting
behind them the intervening years between split and reunion, the dark days
of flopped solo careers, humiliating appearances on I'm A Celebrity - Get Me
Out Of Here! and woeful movies directed by the one from the
Eurythmics that isn't Annie Lennox.
Rock Steady is actually all right, and not as desperate as you may
initially suspect. A sophisticated, uptempo number with hooks aplenty that
harkens back to the band's glory days. It is highly Shaznay-centric, which
is perhaps to be expected due to her position as the band's creative engine
during their heyday (and probably something to be thankful for given the
superior nature of her solo career to that of Melanie Blatt and the
Appletons).
If they keep this up, then this reunion may be worthwhile after all, even
though the position in the pantheon of pop that All Saints once held has
been claimed by younger, fresher upstarts like Girls Aloud and
Sugababes. Girls Aloud have, in fact, criticised Rock Steady for its
similarity to their sound, warranting this retort from Shaznay: "In all
honesty, they are stupid little girls and we don't really give a fuck."
Ladies and gents, All Saints are back.
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