No Limits

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No Limits!
No Limits! cover
Studio album by 2 Unlimited
Released May 10, 1993
Recorded Soundstational Studios
Genre Eurodance
Length 1:10:23 / 55:46 (UK)
Label Byte Records (Sony / PWL)
Producer Jean-Paul de Coster (exec. prod.) and Phil Wilde.
Professional reviews
2 Unlimited chronology
Get Ready!
(1992)		 No Limits!
(1993)		 Real Things
(1994)
UK cover
UK cover
UK cover
Singles from No Limits
  1. "No Limit"
    Released: 1993
  2. "Tribal Dance"
    Released: 1993
  3. "Faces"
    Released: 1993
  4. "Maximum Overdrive"
    Released: 1993
  5. "Let The Beat Control Your Body"
    Released: 1994
For the 1980s BBC2 television series starring Jenny Powell, see No Limits (TV Show)
For the roller coaster simulation software, see No Limits (software)

No Limits (spelled No Limits! in some territories) is the second studio album for Dutch eurodance band 2 Unlimited. With this release, they became the only eurodance artist to have a UK number 1 album; a feat that they achieved twice. They still hold this record.[1] Their record company in the UK (PWL) felt that the raps of Ray Slijngaard were, as producer Jean-Paul de Coster put it, "too clumsy for the UK market"[2]. Furthermore, head of the record company Pete Waterman described Ray's input as "the worst rap I've ever heard".[3] Hence, the UK version of this album featured very little of Ray's input - often having instrumental parts where his raps were originally. No Limits yielded five singles and went platinum in several countries.

Contents

[edit] Background

2 Unlimited had limited success in 1992 with their debut album Get Ready!. It had produced four hit singles, but the album had not performed well commercially, peaking at just #37 in the UK.[4] At the time, many eurodance acts were able to produce hit singles but were unable to capitalize on this with a commercially successful album.[5] 2 Unlimited, however, broke the mould.

At the end of 1992, 2 Unlimited were still only known amongst those who followed chart music at the time. With the first single listed from this album, this changed. It went to number 1 in the UK the week before Valentine's Day, despite the fact that its competition was the more fitting I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston, and spent five weeks there. This exposure lead to them being parodied by the mainstream media with the TV series Spitting Image parodying the track as No Lyrics due to its repetitive lyrical content. Second single Tribal Dance was released in May 1993, and then this album followed soon afterwards.

[edit] Album name and Artwork

Like all the studio albums by the band, the title of the album was a modification of the title of the lead single to be taken from it. The artwork for the UK cover was designed by Julian Barton and David Howells. As like all the 2 Unlimited releases, most other territories featured a different album cover to the UK edition of the album. Unlike their previous album in the UK[6], where many of the tracks featured on it were instrumental[7], the artwork to this album featured Ray and Anita on the front cover.

[edit] Writing and Composition

For the debut album, most of the writing had been done by Wilde and de Coster, with some input from Ray Slijngaard and other featured writers [8]. For No Limits, both Ray and Anita had much more input into the song writing process compared to the previous album. Anita has writing credits on seven of the album's fourteen songs and Ray has writing credits on ten of them.[9]

[edit] Critical Reception

Despite its commercial success, at the time the album was panned by the critics, especially in the UK. In Smash Hits, reviewer Mark Frith described the album as an "across the board techno splurge" and stated that this album contained clues as to why the band were unpopular in "elite dance circles". [10]. In the review of Maximum Overdrive, the magazine reiterated that the band were, "not hard or imaginative and they have no credibility in dance circles."

The All Music Guide review stated that beyond No Limit and Let The Beat Control Your Body, there was little to recommend this album.[11] Toby Anstis stated in his review of Faces that he "thought the album sounded all the same"[12]. Nonetheless, the band won the Best Dance Act award in Smash Hits that year[13] as well as the World Music Award for Benelux.

Retrospective reviews of this album and the band in general have been more favourable. Only three years after the band split, they were described in a Guinness publication as "spectacular" with the sound of No Limit being compared to "the sound giant dinosaurs might make stomping on cities".[14] Their entry then goes on to describe their choruses as "chant-worthy" and that the singles from this album "ravaged hearts and minds across the globe", ending with the statement that they "linger forever in the hearts of true music lovers".

[edit] Track listing

 Audio sample of No Limit
  • "No Limit"
    Sample of "No Limit", the first single from No Limits, which spent five weeks at number one in the UK.
  • Problems playing the files? See media help.
# Title Length
1. "No Limit" 3:44
2. "Tribal Dance" 4:31
3. "Mysterious" 4:23
4. "Faces" 3:48
5. "Maximum Overdrive" 3:58
6. "The Power Age" 3:59
7. "Break The Chain" 3:49
8. "Kiss Me Bliss Me" 3:52
9. "Throw The Groove Down" 4:18
10. "R.U.O.K." 4:11
11. "Let The Beat Control Your Body" 4:02
12. "Invite Me To Trance" 4:07
13. "Where Are You Now" 5:01
14. "Shelter For A Rainy Day" 5:15
15. "Get Ready For This (Wilde Mix)"
Bonus track on the Continental edition		 5:59
16. "No Limit (Automatic Breakbeat Remix)"
Bonus track on the Continental edition		 4:48

[edit] Chart performance

Chart Date Peak position Certification
United Kingdom May 1993 1 [15]  
The Netherlands May 22, 1993 1 [16] Platinum [17]
Norway June 1993 2 [18]  
Switzerland June 6, 1993 3 [19] Platinum [20]
Austria June 20, 1993 3 [21]  
Sweden June 2, 1993 3 [22]  
Ireland May1993 1  
Japan May1993 17  

[edit] Singles

Year Title UK Netherlands Germany Switzerland Austria Spain France Ireland Sweden Norway USA Canada Japan Australia NZ
1993 "No Limit" #1 #1 #2 #1 #1 #1 #1 #1 #1 #1 — #1 — #7 #40
1993 "Tribal Dance" #4 #2 #2 #2 #3 #1 #4 #2 #2 #4 — #7 — #5 #38
1993 "Faces" #8 #2 #8 #19 #10 #4 #16 #7 #11 — — — — #54 —
1993 "Maximum Overdrive" #15 #5 #16 #23 #13 #2 #35 #11 #18 — — — — #32 —
1994 "Let The Beat Control Your Body" #6 #2 #8 #11 #11 #10 #10 #6 #11 — — — — #39 #29

[edit] Writing credits

The following personnel all have writing credits on this album.

  • Phil Wilde
  • Jean-Paul de Coster
  • Ray Slijngaard
  • Anita Dels
  • Filip Martens
  • Xavier de Clayton
  • Peter Bauwens
  • Mike Leahy
  • Jan Voermans
  • Bieman

[edit] References

  1. ^ [1] Sharon Persky's UK Number One albums
  2. ^ Channel 4's Top 10 Irritating Records of Recent Time broadcast in 2003
  3. ^ Entry 685 of 1000 Number Ones by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh
  4. ^ everyHit.com - UK Top 40 Chart Archive, British Singles & Album Charts
  5. ^ For evidence of this, see the chart statistics for acts such as Captain Hollywood Project, Technotronic, Culture Beat and Maxx.
  6. ^ UK sleeve for the Get Ready! album
  7. ^ Tracks 1, 2, 3, 6, 7 and 8 are almost solely instrumental
  8. ^ Get Ready! sleeve notes
  9. ^ No Limits sleeve notes
  10. ^ [link]
  11. ^ allmusic ((( No Limits > Overview )))
  12. ^ [link]
  13. ^ ALL the Smash Hits scans - ChCmedia Forums
  14. ^ Guinness Rockopedia 1998, p. 456.
  15. ^ EveryHit.co.uk UK Top 40 database Accessed: October 29, 2006
  16. ^ PopInstituut.nl Discography 2 Unlimited Accessed: October 29, 2006
  17. ^ NVPI.nl Dutch certification database Accessed November 4, 2006
  18. ^ NorwegianCharts.com No Limits page Accessed: October 29, 2006
  19. ^ SwissCharts.com No Limits page Accessed: October 29, 2006
  20. ^ SwissCharts.com Certifications 1994 Accessed: October 29, 2006
  21. ^ AustrianCharts.at No Limits page Accessed: October 29, 2006
  22. ^ SwedishCharts.com No Limits page Accessed: October 29, 2006
v • d • e
2 Unlimited
Ray Slijngaard | Anita Doth
Singles
Albums
Remix Albums