Given the history of its creators, there's a lot for this album to live up to. Constantly popping up on the underground dance scenes, whether drum 'n' bass, jungle, acid house, hardcore or, as now, UK garage, Johnny Lisners and Andy Lysandrou have well-planted roots, but little commercial success until this, their latest, and best-known guise, True Steppers.
But now, with the Number Two success of Posh and Dane's bitching garage hit single, and a collaboration with E17's Brian Harvey, there are fears of over-commercialising. It's a fair point, there's a thin line between the Steppers' garage and current chart pop.
But is it the Steppers' fault that their natural progression followed a trend? Unlikely. And grabbing Kele le Roc to guest vocal on the simplistic, snarling 'Not Taking You Back' while she was at a loose end after being dropped from her label is hardly shameful. None of it is.
Okay, so in parts it's almost laughable. While so many other bands are getting in girlie fights to shove their grubby way into the charts (Sporty dissing Westlife, Everlast bitching 'bout Eminem, Gallagher versus Gallagher, etc..) Posh's collaboration with Dane and True Steppers may have got her in a snarly cat fight with Sophie Ellis-Bextor (ex-The Audience and the voice on Spiller's smash hit 'Groovejet') but the real point behind 'Out Of Your Mind' was that it was True Steppers vs True Steppers. The cuss 'n' comeback from 'Buggin Me' was kept within the family. Genius.
For those wanting a serious dance album there's a dodgy, textbook drum 'n' bass track, 'Boooo!' with input from Neutrino - though this does more to sap the album's credibility than any other track - and the classic 80s garage influenced 'Sunshine', the vocals sounding eerily like an early Craig David demo but it's actually the currently unknown Alan Chan who may soon be finding he's born to do it.
With Lisners and Lysandrou being so concerned with being grouped in with a load of Mickey Mouse garage the whole album is a huge display of bravado, there are so many elements that could be passed off as naff or cop-outs, but it seems that because of, rather than in spite of, the appearance of Mrs Beckham, Dane 'ex-boy band' Bowers and all those others so used to the climes of the top of the charts make one cool, smooth garage hit.
