The Best

AMG Review of The Best

Stephen Thomas Erlewine
All Music Guide

Given that t.A.T.u. only had two albums to their name when The Best arrived in the fall of 2006, it might seem like it was a little early for a greatest-hits album -- which is both true and untrue. For most acts, such a quickly arriving hits compilation would be a little premature, but by 2006 the duo's lesbianism shtick was not only exposed as nothing more than a marketing gimmick, but they had also parted ways with their label, Interscope, which meant that their act was outdated and that they no longer had the support of a major label, so it was the perfect time to chronicle the half-decade where they were a Europop sensation. The Best does this exhaustively, offering up the hits -- "All the Things She Said," "Not Gonna Get Us," "How Soon Is Now," "Friend or Foe," "All About Us," plus the new single "Gomenasai" -- plus a bunch of remixes and some album tracks. Since a little t.A.T.u. can go a long way, it's best to get all the big hits in one place; the rest of the record might still be filler even on a hits disc, but at least it has all the big songs, which The Best certainly does, and that should satisfy any listener who considers the Russian duo a guilty pleasure.