To all intents and purposes, a posthumous collection. The reported in-band rifts, 'crisis talks' and the stress of arguing over clothes, leading to the decision to 'have a rest' earlier this year, suggested that the band had finally been put out of their misery for good.
Which is a bit a shame, because for their brief tenure in pop, All Saints provided a smarter, sassier and sexier alternative to the grinning corporate muppetness of Spiceworld. Whilst Posh & co mugged it from every shelf of the nation's Asdas, All Saints were more likely to be seen hanging out down the Met Bar - a place they practically invented - possibly being sick into their combats.
'All Hits' collects, ooh, all eight of the band's singles - 'Lady Marmalade' and 'Under The Bridge' being a double "A" side - plus throws in Melanie Blatt's light garage collaboration with Artful Dodger and a couple of remixes. There's a couple of rum moments - 'All Hooked Up' is fairly useless and 'Bootie Call' is one of the unsexiest tunes about sex ever - but the good stuff , such as the debut hit 'I Know Where Its At', the exploding-vase girl-soul of 'Never Ever', the shimmering 'Pure Shores' and the future-sound-soup of 'Black Coffee', is damn near untouchable.
Whatever the future - so far it's Shaznay and Melanie releasing solo stuff, and the Appletons descending further into 'rock wife' mode with their Liams - 'All Hits' serves as a reminder of how great All Saints actually were. Atomic Kitten, listen and weep.
