For someone largely unknown on our shores, Tatiana had already had quite the career. Whilst her latest release Spider Web might be her UK debut, she has already enjoyed success in her native country Poland with her own solo record as well as with her former group Blue Cafe. She even participated in Eurovision 2004, finishing a disappointing 17th, (then again, beats Britain’s entry) and Blue Cafe were up for an MTV award for best Polish act. Despite all of her past successes, her album is hit and miss throughout, with no distinct style the album seems poorly thrown together.Some of Tatiana’s work is impressive on her album as she attempts to steer her work into a pop sound. Title track and opening single Spider Web is the standout song from the album, which has an S Club meets Adele style, a sort of sophisticated yet sugary pop track. Even though her team of esteemed producers (Whose previous work includes N-Dubz, Girls Aloud & Sugababes) managed to create the right formula for this song, they make an absolute mess of some others. If I Was To Tell You is awful on so many levels, it sounds like a commercial for some awful holiday resort or maybe a posh circus, with stupid trumpets blaring throughout the chorus and a distinct change in vocals from Tatiana making this potentially the least important track in 2011.
Unfortunately the stupid producing didn’t stop there, as the majority of Tatiana’s album has ridiculously overzealous and effects happy producing, masking her good voice and making the artist try and sound like they’re at an Eastern-European disco for the entire length of the LP. Still if we ignore the musical diarrhoea Denis Ingoldsby & Andy Murray has flung all over this album and just concentrate on the artist’s work, it isn’t too bad. Tracks like Bottom Line & So Long don’t sound bad when you manage to ignore the producing, but even in then the tracks are far from breathtaking.
As you’ve probably guessed by now I’m not the greatest fan of the producing on Tatiana’s LP, for the simple reason that on every single sound (with the exception of Spider Web) is over-the-top and pointless. For some of the tracks you are left with the impression you’ve been watching someone juggle for ten minutes, whilst others seem to include Arabic and Turkish background sounds, which would be fine apart from Tatiana is from Poland and she’s trying to appeal to a mainstream English audience. Her debut UK release is a real shame because underneath all of this her voice is quite good, it’s just a pity her producer took the time to defecate over her work and leave her with a shitty release.
