Author: HQH
Released: April 18, 2002
Updated: May 30, 2002
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ATB's 3rd album has finally reached the United States. His album is titled "Dedicated" and was released on April 16, 2002. I got my
hands on it a day later. I bought it for $14.99 + tax at Best Buy on my way
home from college. Total is $15.66 (tax is 4.5% in Virginia). Everywhere else, they were selling it for a couple of dollars more.
Update: Best Buy had the album on sale for $11.99 in Sunday's advertisement on April 21, 2002. I went back to Best Buy and got
the difference back from Best Buy. Saved me $3.14.
Pictured above is the CD still in shrink wrap with the Best Buy price sticker. On the top, in the black area, it says, "INCLUDES
THE MEGA HITS Hold You, Let U Go, & You're Not Alone" and in the blue area, it says, "+ VIP ACCESS CODE TO WWW.ATB-MUSIC.COM AND
AN OFFER FOR A FREE BONUS ENHANCED CD".
Tearing away the wrapper yields the following picture:
The back of the CD jewel case:
Here are the track listings from the back of the jewel case:
01 Dedicated 04:15
02 Hold You 03:31
03 Get High 05:59
04 You're Not Alone 05:57
05 Halcyon 04:00
06 Let U Go 03:30
07 I Can't Stand... 05:53
08 Hero 04:24
09 I See It 04:25
10 Basic Love 07:27
11 I Wanna Cry 04:23
12 Remember 06:22
Bonus Track:
13 Hold You (Todd Terry's Extended Remix) 06:12
Contents of the CD jewel case:
ATB's Dedicated CD contains a booklet, the CD, and a response card that you mail in to get the free bonus enhanced CD. Here's
the response card's front and back:
As you can see, Radikal (music distributor) is asking for $5 for the bonus
CD. It's to pay for the shipping and handling. Also, if anybody bought ATB's Dedicated album, you'll notice that the response card
pictures above has no ship to address anywhere! I went to Radikal's website
and lo and behold, at the News section, one day before ATB's Dedicated album is released, they acknowledged that there was a
mistake, which was leaving the ship to address off of the response card. Here's the ship to address to send that response card in
to get that bonus enhanced CD:
Radikal Records
Dept ATB
PO Box 186
Teaneck, NJ 07666
So, what does the special Limited Edition ATB Dedicated Bonus CD has to offer? Here's what it has to offer:
- Previously unreleased remixed of:
- Hold You
- The Fields of Love
- Killer
- 9PM (Till I Come)
- Video for Hold You
Here's some snapshots of the included booklet:
Above is the front of the booklet.
Above is the 1st and 2nd page. 2nd page has the track's name and time.
Above is the 3rd and 4th page. 3rd page has credits, and the 4th page has a crossword puzzle.
Above is the 5th and 6th page. 5th page has some information on the vocalist - Roberta Carter Harrison. Also, near the spine of
the booklet (can't see in the picture), it says, ""Hero" and "I Wanna Cry" are dedicated to everyone who was affected by the
horrific events of September 11, 2001."
Above is the 7th and 8th page. You can find the VIP access code to ATB's hidden web page on the 8th page. To get to the hidden
web page, go here. You end up at the VIP Lounge, which
is a visible link when you click on English link from ATB's main website and it can be seen in the menu.
ATB's hidden web page can be found by clicking on the VIP Lounge link from his menu. You then enter in your 9 digit password
found in the booklet. You get the following:
- Wallpapers
- Screensaver
- ATB DJ-Mix (in Realplayer format)
- ATB Studio Video (in Realplayer format)
Above is the 9th and 10th page. The 9th page just has a fancy crossword puzzle with the track's listing.
Above is the back of the booklet.
Below are pictures of the ATB - Dedicated Enhanced Bonus CD when mailing in the free bonus CD postcard:
It finally arrived on Tuesday, May 28, 2002. I sent the free CD postcard on April 20, 2002. It only took 39 days to get here,
including weekends and a holiday on a normal weekday (Memorial Day).
This is what it looked like when opening the package.
This is what the front paper pocket case that held the bonus CD with the wrapper still on.
The back side.
The CD itself.
Three included postcards, the front sides of them.
The back side.
Radikal sticker.
A special T-Shirt, a poster and some more postcards offer.
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Note: Don't take the review as an extensive review of how each song sounds like, and how I should be able to describe how it
sounds like and pick out little details here and there.
Dedicated
This is the 3rd ATB album that I bought. Listened to all of the tracks, and here are my takes on each track:
Track 1 - Dedicated: An okay track to listen to.
Track 2 - Hold You: A very nice track with vocals. This somewhat follows in the footstep of Let U
Go. Love it.
Track 3 - Get High: This contains some nature sound like bird chirping. Then again, from the title
of the track, sounds like you listen to this while you're getting high on some substances or something (although I don't promote
such action). This track doesn't hit my taste.
Track 4 - You're Not Alone: This is ATB's remake from the group Olive. Sounds much better with ATB
reproducing it. Nice vocals as well.
Track 5 - Halcyon: This track is okay to listen to although I'm not into it. Halcyon is associated
with a fabled bird and a kingfisher.
Track 6 - Let U Go: Another vocal track. Love it. Essentially, this is the airplay mix from his
single release Let U Go, it is now included in his Dedicated album. Another thing is that this song isn't really new. Let U Go was
also in ATB's 2nd album Two Worlds, although it was mixed differently.
Track 7 - I Can't Stand...: I just can't stand the vocals on this track. Although the song is
okay, the vocals just kills it. If the vocals were removed, it would've been better.
Track 8 - Hero: A nice track with vocals in it. Love it.
Track 9 - I See It: I like how the track starts out and when it is in the process of ending. I
would say that this track would've been okay without too much vocals and mixed a little bit differently. The vocal in this track is
a bit of disappointing. They guy opens his mouth too much. I don't like his vocal sounds at some certain points (sounds creepy at
times). Also sounds so desperate, like a stalker. :)
Track 10 - Basic Love: This track doesn't sound like basic love. Sounds like a semi-wild love to
me. It's an okay track to listen to.
Track 11 - I Wanna Cry: I love this track. Nothing more to say but to just listen to it. Has some
vocal in it. Makes me wanna cry. ;)
Track 12 - Remember: This track does bring back memories. Especially from ATB's 1st album Movin'
Melodies. The track I'm talking about is Beach Vibes by EFF from his 1st album. In this track, you got the same beach sound waves.
But then everything else, ATB changed it a bit. Relaxing, makes me want to listen to it on the beach watching the sunset.
Track 13 - Hold You (Todd Terry's Extended Remix): I like this remix of Hold You. The vocal is
mutilated in a funky way (not in a bad way). This is a relaxing mix of Hold You. Although I kind of dislike how the song ends. Too
much repetitive section that is repeated over and over. Gets annoying, especially if you're just sitting or laying down listening
to it. This slowly begins after the 5 minute mark.
Overall, I did enjoy ATB's 3rd album. Every album that he releases, it's different from the past albums. Very little carries
over into his next album. The tracks that I really like are:
- Track 02, Hold You
- Track 04, You're Not Alone
- Track 06, Let U Go
- Track 08, Hero
- Track 11, I Wanna Cry
- Track 13, Hold You (Todd Terry's Extended Remix)
The rest are okay to listen to.
As for the VIP access, here are my thoughts of it:
- Wallpapers: They're basically pictures related to the Dedicated booklet.
- Screensaver: More pictures of ATB himself. Screen saver is made with Macromedia's Flash program.
- ATB DJ-Mix (in Realplayer format): The mix is okay. Sad thing is that it's in Real audio format, and that it's stream in 32
Kbps, which is kind of poor quality. It would've been nice if it was 128 Kbps MP3 format, but that'll mean that more bandwidth is
needed. One other problem is that I've listened to this three times in a row, and right around the 43 minute mark into the mix, the
stream then goes bad. Everytime. So 17 minutes of the mix isn't heard of.
- ATB Studio Video (in Realplayer format): This is the best thing out of everything. I like how he went through his studio. It
is nice. Part of his studio was seen in "You're Not Alone" video, but this takes it further. Very nice in deed. The only thing I
wished is that the resolution could be bumped up a bit more.
Dedicated Enhanced Bonus CD
Track 1 - Hold You (Svenson & Gielen Remix): This mix is cool. Although it takes a while to
get to the good part. Only about a quarter of this song is worth listening to. This remix doesn't have all the lyrics to the song
Hold You.
Track 2 - The Fields Of Love (Public Domain Club Mix): I'm not a fan of this mix. I like the
original mix better.
Track 3 - Killer (Lost Witness Remix): The better version of Killer and extended as well. Although
I'm not a fan of this song, it does sound better than the original.
Track 4 - 9pm (Till I Come) (Bent Remix): I find this as a nice chill mix. It's a nice mix,
although I wished the remix didn't include the familiar vinyl pops as heard throughout the song (it's part of the song though).
Music video - Hold You: you can see ATB walking throughout the beach places and pictures of people
dancing appearing on the background, like buildings. The music video doesn't show any relationship to the song itself, or I can't
see it anyhow. The only complaint from me is that they could've at least put a better quality and higher resolution of the music
video on the CD. I already got the SVCD ripped version of the music video from the TV and it's way better than the one found on the
CD. Quality is better and the resolution is big. They have the space on the CD to afford a higher quality and resolution music
video.
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Finally, ATB's 3rd album is released in the United States on April 16, 2002. It's been more than several months since the overseas
release on January 28, 2002. Although there is only one difference with the overseas release. There's a bonus track for the US
release (total of 13 tracks), whereas overseas only had 12 tracks. Out of ATB's 3rd album, 11 tracks are new, excluding the bonus
track. 1 track which was not new is Let U Go, which was actually a remix from his 2nd album.
One worthy thing to note is that all the tracks that I really like have vocals in it. ATB is moving towards the vocal region.
From his 1st album, there aren't as much. Move through 2nd album, where it increased, and then to his 3rd album, has a lot more than
his previous albums. Also, most of his music style has changed and that he has learned some new sound effects. It's not the same
from his 1st or 2nd album.
Was his 3rd album worth the $11.99 + tax price tag? It is worth it to me. I like this guy's music a lot. Bought all three of his
albums too. Every one of them are unique. I would recommend listening to ATB's music to anybody.
I have mailed in that response card to get that bonus CD on April 20, 2002. The bonus CD arrived 39 days later (including
weekends and a holiday on a normal weekday), so much for arriving in a few weeks as they said it would. The bonus CD with the
package that came with it felt that it was worth the $5 to pay for. The package was the bonus CD, three postcards, a Radikal
sticker, and a special offer.
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