Logo
DiS Needs You: Save our site »
  • Logo_home2
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • In Photos
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Search
  • Community
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • Blog
  • Community

THIS SITE HAS BEEN ARCHIVED AND CLOSED.

Please join the conversation over on our new forums »

If you really want to read this, try using The Internet Archive.

t.A.T.u

Not Gonna Get Us

Label: Universal Music Release Date: 19/05/2003

4007
mtaylor by Mark Taylor May 15th, 2003

There’s a strange moment about two-thirds of the way through the video for ‘Not Gonna Get Us’. At the point when the song’s seventeen-stone super-heavyweight backbeat gives way to a solitary featherlight keyboard, the images of a t.A.T.u.-driven juggernaut pelting it full-kilter through Siberia are replaced on screen by family photos of Lena Katina and Julia Volkova.

It’s odd to be made privy to these pictures, to be included in what should certainly be the band’s private world. But then, t.A.T.u. are a total project, required to play a role at all times – to still be pop stars and ‘are-they-or-aren’t-they?’ lovers off-stage and off-mic. Why else would it reputedly be a contractual requirement, rather than a matter of choice, that they always sleep in the same bed on tour?

So, t.A.T.u. come with the implicit message that identity exists in the way we act, nothing more. And by acting like pop stars and acting out the routines of love – kissing not least amongst them – t.A.T.u. have become pop stars and, ostensibly at least, have become lovers. Nice one. It’s an exhilarating and shamelessly liberating fantasy of self-creation. If only my deciding to swank around like a rock and roll icon would have the same effect for me.

And ‘Not Gonna Get Us’, for what it’s worth as part of this project, is absolutely great. No point in framing yourself as pop stars if you can’t frame yourself as decent pop stars. A fantasy of total freedom, delivered with total assurance and yet underscored with bleary-eyed escapees' ennui. It's another behemoth of a record, as loud and as unstoppable as the runaway jugganaut in the video. These are emotions in the full 17:9 aspect ratio sense of the term, as far from meek and unassuming as its possible to conceive. Pure cinema – an act on one level or another – but enough to leave you blinking, disorientated and disillusioned on your re-emergence into the real world. Stellar.

  • 10
    Mark Taylor's Score
Log-in to rate this record out of 10
Share on
   
Love DiS? Become a Patron of the site here »


LATEST


  • Why Music Journalism Matters in 2024


  • Drowned in Sound is back!


  • Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Year: 2020


  • Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter


  • Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing


  • Glastonbury 2019 preview playlist + ten alternative must sees



Left-arrow

The Dandy Warhols

Welcome To The Monkey House

Mobback
3971

The Vines at Camden Electric Ballroom, Camden, Thu 19 Feb

Mobforward
Right-arrow


LATEST

    news


    Why Music Journalism Matters in 2024

  • 106145
  • news


    Drowned in Sound is back!

  • 106143

    news


    Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Y...

  • 106141
  • news


    Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter

  • 106139

    Playlist


    Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing

  • 106138
  • Festival Preview


    Glastonbury 2019 preview playlist + ten alterna...

  • 106137

    Interview


    A Different Kind Of Weird: dEUS on The Ideal Crash

  • 106136
  • Festival Review


    Way Out East: DiS Does Sharpe Festival 2019

  • 106135
MORE


    news


    The Neptune Music Prize 2016 - Vote Now

  • 103918
  • Takeover


    The Winner Takes It All

  • 50972

    Takeover


    10 Things To Not Expect Your Record Producer To...

  • 93724
  • review


    The Mars Volta - Deloused In The Comatorium

  • 4317

    review


    Sonic Youth - Nurse

  • 6044
  • feature


    New Emo Goth Danger? My Chemical Romance confro...

  • 89578

    feature


    DiS meets Justice

  • 27270
  • news


    Our Independent music filled alternative to New...

  • 104374
MORE

Drowned in Sound
  • DROWNED IN SOUND
  • HOME
  • SITE MAP
  • NEWS
  • IN DEPTH
  • IN PHOTOS
  • RECORDS
  • RECOMMENDED RECORDS
  • ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
  • FESTIVAL COVERAGE
  • COMMUNITY
  • MUSIC FORUM
  • SOCIAL BOARD
  • REPORT ERRORS
  • CONTACT US
  • JOIN OUR MAILING LIST
  • FOLLOW DiS
  • GOOGLE+
  • FACEBOOK
  • TWITTER
  • SHUFFLER
  • TUMBLR
  • YOUTUBE
  • RSS FEED
  • RSS EMAIL SUBSCRIBE
  • MISC
  • TERM OF USE
  • PRIVACY
  • ADVERTISING
  • OUR WIKIPEDIA
© 2000-2025 DROWNED IN SOUND