Fridae

Two cute underage lesbians from Russia who sing with thick accents and unbounded raw energy? If this didn't reek so much of sheer marketing gimmick, it would have been almost too exotic to be true... and their boyfriends would agree.

Not surprisingly, T.A.T.U. is a Russian acronym for "this girl loves that girl." Made up of Lena Katina and Julia Volkova (both 18), the girls were selected by executive producer Ivan Shapovalov from a pool of 500 potential "lesbians" in 1999. Incidentally, both had sung together previously in Neposedi, a Russian children's band, although Julia was later kicked out for "obscene behavior and corrupting other singers." Wouldn't we wanna know why?

Intentionally manufactured to appeal mainly to straight men, you'd expect 200 Km/h In The Wrong Lane to sound like any other record produced by the likes of the M2Ms and Atomic Kittens of the world. Strangely, that doesn't seem to be the case with T.A.T.U.�they're a whole new different breed.

Lyrically, the album packs a punch� although it is sometimes difficult to distinguish whether they're singing in English or Russian. References to forbidden love are abundant in almost all tracks. All The Things She Said has them singing "When they stop and stare / Don't worry me' / Cause I'm feeling for her what she's feeling for me", while the second single Not Gonna Get Us claims that "They don't understand us".

30 Minutes begins with "Mama, Papa / Forgive me", Stars has them asking "Do we deserve / To build the shame of this whole world", and "How dare you say / I go about things the wrong way / I am human and I need to be loved" is given a new meaning in the cover of The Smiths' How Soon Is Now. Malchik Gay (means "boy gay"), is exceptionally amusing, and for some reason sounds like it was taken right from a Hindi movie soundtrack.

Assimilating techno and pop, their singing is at times piercing and then soothing on the 11-track disc, which features two versions from the original Russian release. Pop the disc in your computer and you also get to see the music video for All The Things She Said with all its exciting bits.

Produced by Trevor Horn (who's worked with Seal, Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Pet Shop Boys), the album is the English-language release of its Russian counterpart of the same name.

"People love us or hate us, but nobody thinks nothing about us", says Lena. Apparently, a bad reputation is the least of their worries for the time being.