200 km/h in the Wrong Lane

Prior to t.A.T.u., Yulia Volkova and Lena Katina had auditioned as members of Neposedy, a group produced by Ivan Shapovalov and his business partner Alexander Voitinskyi. Shapolavov has said the two girls stood out from the rest of those that auditioned; however, 14-year-old Katina was initially the only one chosen for the group. She sang "It Must Have Been Love" and later recorded a demo release of "Yugoslavia" for the "1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia".[2] When both Katina and Volkova were cast for the group (under the name 'Taty'), they began to record their first album. Then, in 2001 the duo released "200 Po Vstrechnoy", which became successful in Poland and Russia. While the album was in development, their producer Alexander Voitinskyi left the production, leaving the album unreleased. However, Shapolavov later signed Elena Kiper as the new co-producer and co-writer for the album. With the success, Shapovalov decided to sign the duo to Interscope and its parent Universal at the headquarters in Russia.

The duo started recording the album at Trevor Horn's home studio in London and having some recording sessions in Los Angeles. When the duo were signed and ready for recording, both Volkova and Katina felt it was easy to understand the English language.[3] Volkova stated that Martin Kierszenbaum helped her with pronunciation, while Katina was already speaking English before production of the album.[3] However, during the times recording in studios, Volkova constantly lost her voice.[3]

Katina commented on the collaborations, saying; "It was great [...] I think he was involved in some translations because we wanted to keep the meaning of the songs, and to keep the structure specifics. I think that Martin [Kierszenbaum] is a little bit of a fan of t.A.T.u, so he was really trying hard to make us big everywhere! We had an opportunity to work with great producer, it was valuable experience. I am talking about Trevor Horn. And in general, just imagine: Two girls are coming from Russia, which is another world compared to the USA, working with a high class producers and writers and management. Everybody is so professional. Working with Martin and Interscope in general brought us to an absolutely different level."[3]

The music of 200 km/h in the Wrong Lane is derived from a wide variety of pop and dance genres while heavily incorporating different musical styles not being present on their previous Russian record. It encompasses a broad variety of genres, such as electronic, rock, industrial and Eurodance. It is considered that the album is a departure to their Russian debut, because that contained heavy Europop, Eurodance and techno influences. According to Allmusic, t.A.T.u. have been known for "Eurodance, Europop, electronica and pop rock" music through their career. A lot of fans and, surprisingly, critics have applauded their mix of electronica and pop rock styles. According to Discogs, the album is influenced by musical genres of electronic, pop, rock, Europop, pop rock and balladry.[4]

The first track, "Not Gonna Get Us" is a Eurodance-inspired song, with influences of dance-pop and rock.[5] "All the Things She Said" was the first single released, but the second track on the album. The song opens with dreamy, trance-gated synthesizers and then shifts into a guitar-based pop rock style with Trevor Horn's trademark huge drum sound.[6] The line "I'm in serious shit, I feel totally lost" in the first verse would be sung normally in live performance; on the album, however, the word is censored and was completely removed in the music video. The third single, "Show Me Love", was released in Poland. The song was described as "neutral".[7] "30 Minutes" was later released as the fourth single. The song has been described as a "slow atmospheric ballad".[7]

"How Soon Is Now?" was the band's last single released from this album and was also the fifth track on the album. It is a cover version of The Smiths song of the same name. The song "is transformed by scorched synths, furious power-chords and Katina or Volkova’s defiant roar "You Shut Your Mouth", into an angry punka blast."[8] "Clowns (Can You See Me Now?)" was the sixth track on the album. The song was written by Horn, Ivan Shapolavov and Valery Polienko. It was also scheduled to be the last single, but this plan was scrapped. However, for a promotional release, 200km/h in the Wrong Lane was re-issued in their native Russia under the name t.A.T.u. – Clowns.[9] It has a synthpop and electronica style. "Malchik Gay" (translated to: Gay Boy) is the seventh track on the album. AllMusic named it as an album highlight because the lyrics, which were written by their producers, had received a lot of attention. It is an acoustic song concerning homosexuality. "Stars" is the eighth and final original track on the album. The song "tries for smooth world-pop with an extended Russian rap, but doesn't linger in anyone’s memory after it's over."[7]

The album's title was revealed as 200 km/h in the Wrong Lane, which strikes a similarity to their first album. In a documentary on their DVD Screaming for More, the group revealed that the title of the album was to represent their imagery that was portrayed through the media and that the album represented a "dangerous" side to them.[10] Katina also said of Volkova's dangerous driving that inspired the title.

The artwork and photoshoot off the album was shot by Sheryl Nields.[11] There are three official covers to the album. The international version featured both Volkova and Katina leaning of a motorbike, with Katina leaning on Volkova. The Japanese version was shot with the duo in catholic school uniforms similar to the clothes they wore in the "All the Things She Said" video. Because the album issued music videos, a "G" rating was issued on the cover off the album physically.[11] The 10th Anniversary Edition takes the artwork off "All the Things She Said" and uses the group's music videos to illustrate the border of the cover.

"All the Things She Said" was released as the first single off the album in August 2002.[23] It initially received mixed reception, praising the catchiness and creativeness, while criticizing the repetition. The song topped many charts around the world, including Australia, Germany, France, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The song peaked at number twenty on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming the highest Russian act to do so.[24] The song was directed by their manager Ivan Shapovalov, with the girls in school uniforms kissing.

"Not Gonna Get Us" was released in May 2003 by Interscope Records, both physically and digitally. It was met with favorable reception, praising their departure from their first single and felt it was radio-friendly. The video was also shot by Shapolavov, where it features the girls escaping a supposed prison-like environment and escaping in a construction truck.

"Ne Ver', Ne Boysia" was used as the official Russian entry to the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest. Released as a promotional single in May 2003, the song came third in the competition, only because of the lack of voting opportunity from the United Kingdom and Ireland.

"Show Me Love" and "30 Minutes" were both released promotionally in Europe, not managing to receive success critically or commercially. Music video's for each single were released though, with "30 Minutes" receiving controversy due to nudity.[25][26][27]

"How Soon Is Now?", A cover from The Smiths was the final single from the studio album. The song received mixed reviews, praising the potential while criticizing the production and the duos vocal abilities. The song managed to chart moderately around Europe and Australia.

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[15]
Drowned in Sound	[8]
Entertainment.ie	[28]
The Guardian	[29]
Heat	[30]
MusicOMH	(favourable)[31]
Rolling Stone	[32]
Robert Christgau	[33]
Stylus Magazine	D[34]
PopMatters	(favourable)[7]

200 km/h in the Wrong Lane received mixed reviews from contemporary music critics. Entertainment.ie gave it a favorable review, awarding it three stars. They had said "A teenage lesbian duo from Russia may sound like a marketing man's fantasy rather than a living, breathing pop band." and finished saying "Tatu's novelty value won't, of course, last forever. But for now, they're as entertaining as anyone in mainstream chart music."[28] Michael Osborn from MusicOMH was positive, saying "Short it may be, but TATU's initial English language offerings are fresh-sounding pop songs of such a high pedigree, that this is an album which will be played to death." They later talked about the girls being on top headlines about the controversy and he stated "Ignore all the headlines - this intriguing Russian act has the ability to hit all the right notes with their music alone, and have more than just one mammoth smash to offer."[31] David Merryweather from Drowned in Sound called the album "the first pop masterpiece of the year" and encouraged people "Don’t pretend you don’t care."[8]

However, Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic rated the album two stars out of five, first calling the band a marketing gimmick, and adding that the songs could not be fun due to leaning on "heavy, portentous Europop, badly sung by two cute girls with annoying squawks for voices." He ended by saying "With those relentless, gloomy beats and those voices that cut against the grain, it's easy to concentrate on nothing but the gimmick, because it's more fun to talk about Russian teenage lesbians than listen to this noisy, oppressive murk."[15] Todd Burns from Stylus Magazine awarded the album with a D rating, and gave it a mixed review. He said "It's obviously pop product and probably not worth the money to buy, but certainly essential pop listening if only for the already European released singles." However, he was positive towards the single releases, calling them "phenomenal confectionary pop constructions."[34]

In the United States, the album debuted at number thirty-six on the chart. The album then rose to thirteen, selling 51,000 copies in its second week becoming the best-gaining sales of that week end.[35] staying in the charts for thirty-three weeks in total. In October 2005, the album sold 760,000 copies in North America, according to Nielsen Soundscan.[36] As of a 2012 Niselen SoundScan update, the album has sold 831,000 copies there, becoming the group's best selling album there and was certified gold by Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of 500,000 copies.

The album debuted at number nineteen on the Australian Albums Chart on 30 March 2003, the highest debut of that week.[37] It remained in the top forty until its tenth week, where it dropped to forty-four and stayed for eleven runs.[38] The album entered at number nine on the New Zealand Albums Chart, becoming the second highest charting album of that week and the group's only top ten studio album.[39] The album descended all its way to number thirty-eight and stayed at total of twelve runs through the chart. In Japan, the album sold more than 300,000 copies in just two days, making them the most successful Eastern European act to have the most sales in a week. As of 2010, the album has sold over 5 million copies worldwide.[40]

In October 2012, the group's previous record labels Interscope and Cherrytree Records announced they would be re-releasing the album under the name 200 km/h in the Wrong Lane: 10 Year Anniversary Edition, as recognition of a ten-year anniversary from the original version.[41] The album contains a new song entitled "A Simple Motion", which is the English version of their Russian single, "Prostye Dvizheniya". Back in 2008, there was an interview with the duo where they said that there is still an English version of "Prostye Dvizheniya", but it remained unreleased. This song is the original 2002 version that was never released.[41]

The album is remastered along with new remixes as well as the explicit versions of "All the Things She Said", "Show Me Love" and the extended version of "Show Me Love". The album features a new artwork that was taken from the 2002 era and was released with a parental advisory sticker on 12 November 2012.[41] Not long after its announcement, new artwork was released on the Cherrytree website.[41] On 17 September 2012, just two months before the announcement, the album was already released on the iTunes Store digitally.[42]

• Lena Katina – vocals
• Yulia Volkova – vocals
• Martin Kierszenbaum – arranger, producer, A&R
• Cindy Cooper – production coordination
• Sheryl Nields – photography
• Trevor Horn – arranger, producer
• Robert Orton – arranger, mixing, engineer, producer
• Bob Ludwig – mastering
• Sergio Galoyan – producer, composer
• Dean Beckett – package co-ordinator (10th anniversary edition)
• Greg Benninger – package design (10th anniversary edition)