Booty Luv

Booty Luv's sensational train of hits finally hit stateside with the 2008 release of 'Boogie 2Nite', the young duo's debut album. Originally released in Europe in 2007 on Hed Kandi Records, the album's US release was announced along with the news that Hed Kandi US would be opening. Grand tidings indeed! For anyone entrenched in dance music or the British/European pop scene, Nadia and Cherise (the singers of Booty Luv) have been hard to ignore.

The ride began for Nadia and Cherise in the slow demise of British hip-hop ground Big Brovaz. In an extreme downtime for the group, music execs offered the ladies a golden opportunity in the form of "Boogie 2Nite." "Boogie" was originally a failed single from R&B singer Tweet's album Southern Hummingbird. The Seamus Haji remix of Tweet's track served as the original musical background for Booty Luv's version, and in late 2006, "Boogie 2Nite" was a bona fide club hit.

What was expected to be yet another dance flash-in-the-pan, as happens with many great songs and artists in our wonderful genre, turned out to be the start of something wonderful, yet familiar. The duo would follow up their smash debut with another cover of the 2006 Luther Vandross hit, "Shine," and then score a third hit with a cover of an obscure Lucy Pearl song called "Don't Mess With My Man." Covers aren't unheard of in the dance market, especially when done with the cool classiness that the Hed Kandi label typically brings, however it doesn't say much for the artists themselves when their only hits already existed.

Enter "Some Kinda Rush," written by Nadia and Cherise. While the single charted lowest on average among their collected singles, I feel it is their strongest track to date. It is also the reason I purchased the 2007 version of 'Boogie 2Nite.'

The first thing I noticed about the music on Boogie was just how... cohesive the album was. It wasn't a collection of filler to support the reasoning behind allowing these two to cut an album, it was a collection of strong, independent dance tracks. The three aforementioned covers are joined by "Be With You" (Mary J. Blige), and "Where You Are" (Rahsaan Patterson). The former is pretty much a strict reinterpretation of the Moto Blanco club mix for Blige's hit, while the latter is the only ballad on the album. The rest of the tracks could, generally, be described as disco house tracks with strong electro undertones. And yet, this generalization of their tracks feels like a disservice to the obvious hard work the girls have put into their album. With the exception of "Who's That Girl" and "A Little Bit", the rest of the tracks boast Nadia and Cherise as co-writers. Considering the quality of the tracks they put their hands on, I'd say this is a blessing and not a curse.

Hed Kandi US releasing this album stateside opens further opportunities for these girls to shine, exhibited primarily by the rerelease of the single "Shine" on American soil. "Shine" gets a facelift in this release, with a new mix by the Passengerz, and further exposure for the Moto Blanco and Hoxton Whores remixes. Hopefully this means a possible release for "Something To Talk About", perhaps the second-best of their hand-written tracks, and a song definitely primed for the dancefloor.

Summary - 'Boogie 2Nite' is a dance album to be revered and envied. While the message is of a typical pop nature - love songs, independence, and mini stories about nothing - the music is top notch and the potential is endless.

It is rare for me to find cds that I enjoy every song on, Boogie 2Nite is one of the best up beat cds I have ever handed over greenbax for. It is too bad that they have not gotten a high heel in the door here in the US - but overseas these gals seem to be doin well. To me Booty Luv is like the 2008 Afro-European version of Bananarama - fun dance tunes that you can work out to or just get drunk to.
Very catchy tunes, outstanding production and great vocals have landed this cd in my top 5 of 2007.