All Hits

Born to Do It
by: peter naldrett - uk correspondent

It’s the season of greatest hits collections, when stars tug at our heart strings to try and win their place in our Christmas stockings. By far the best one out there at the moment is the new singles CD from All Saints, who split up a while ago and have given us this offering as a parting gift.

The collection is released in two formats, one with the CD and a limited edition release with a DVD thrown in for good measure. If you can get hold of the limited edition copy, you will not be disappointed because together these discs make up one of the most inventive and inspirational greatest hits collections ever released.

Although only spawning two studio albums, All Saints (Nicole, Natalie, Shaznay and Melanie) have a mighty impressive collection of instantly recognizable hit singles to their bow. The CD has their 1997 debut's hits "I Know Where It’s At," "Never Ever," "Bootie Call" and "War Of Nerves." The good tunes come right up to date with the recent hits "Pure Shores" and "Black Coffee." But the undoubted high point of their career was the double A-side issue of "Under The Bridge" and "Lady Marmalade" which were really funky and had cool videos to match.

And the beauty of the DVD package is that you get to see these videos as well, in an impressive collection of six vids along with audio remixes and a lengthy gallery section of All Saints pics and CD covers.

For an all-girl band that have come in for some stick during their time, you have to give credit to All Saints, who constantly knocked out quality cover versions and hits of their own, and called it a day at the top of their careers.

This greatest hits collection matches the rest of their brief, but precise stay, in that it is unbelievably well put together and offers immensely more than most of the other standard collections that will be around in the run up to Christmas. This is an example to every band wanting to cash in on Yuletide presents, and a call for pop stars to put more of an effort into making their CDs something to crave. 30-Oct-2001 4:45 PM