2001 single by All Saints
"All Hooked Up" is a song by English-Canadian girl group All Saints from their second album, Saints & Sinners (2000). London Records released the song as the third and last single from the album on 15 January 2001.
Composition and lyrical interpretation
"All Hooked Up" is a hip hop,[2][3] P-funk,[4] and R&B song.[5] The Guardian's Caroline Sullivan commented that the group sings "'I know that you want a piece of mah ass' under the misapprehension that they're Mary J Blige", and that when Lewis sings "Why's this guy all up in my ass?", it "doesn't make her sound like anything but an English girl trying to do ghetto-fab".[6] The Sunday People's Sean O'Brien called it a "mid tempo song with a great groove created with a plodding bass, lots of P-Funk style and raunchy lyrics".[4]
Reception
Critical response
"All Hooked Up" received generally favourable reviews from music critics. Sean O'Brien of The Sunday People gave the song a rating of eight out of ten, deeming it a "dirty sexy track with a lot of attitude" and "a great groove".[4] Jon O'Brien from AllMusic likened it to songs by Lucy Pearl.[7] The Sunday Herald praised the track for "maintaining the Saints' trademark tough-girl buffalo stance" and "cowboy-hat-wearing sass".[8] Similarly, Nigel Packer from BBC News commended the song's lyrics which he felt had "bags of attitude".[9] John Walshe of the Hot Press wrote: "Time has not curbed their libidos one iota, thankfully, nor their independence."[10]
Russell Baillie of The New Zealand Herald criticised the group for fixating the lyrics on their buttocks and "trying desperately to be TLC".[5] John Robinson of the NME found the lyrics weird and discomforting to be sung by the group and "like someone reading from a textbook on foundry work, translated from the original Hungarian", and dismissed the song as "woozy cheese music".[2] In 2016, Lewis Corner from Digital Spy placed "All Hooked Up" at number nine in his ranking of All Saints singles, calling it "a so-so hip-hop-lite number that's about as gritty as a suburban cul-de-sac" and "not quite the swansong their fans were after at the time".[3]
Chart performance
Although expected to debut at number one,[11] "All Hooked Up" debuted at number seven on the UK Singles Chart dated 27 January 2001, becoming All Saints' eighth consecutive top 10 single in the UK.[12][13] It dropped to number 28 in its second week and went on to spend a total of 14 weeks on the chart.[14] As of November 2006, "All Hooked Up" has sold 54,699 copies in the UK.[15] It is the group's ninth best-selling single in the UK according to the Official Charts Company.[16] Elsewhere, "All Hooked Up" charted in Ireland (number 18),[17] the Netherlands (number 95),[18] and Switzerland (number 96).[19] In New Zealand, the song peaked at number 50 on the New Zealand Singles Chart for two consecutive weeks.[20]
Music video
The accompanying music video for "All Hooked Up" was directed by Douglas Avery.[21] The video was filmed over two days in London. The stunts done in the visual were painstakingly choreographed with no special effects.[22] The video aired on 11 December 2000.[23] At the time, the group was on the verge of splitting up because of internal arguing, and a further source of friction occurred when Melanie Blatt mimed to Natalie Appleton's voice on the video.[24] The music video itself features All Saints rooting out men in their motel rooms and then throwing them through windows, walls and closed doors.[22]
Credits and personnel
Credits are adapted from the liner notes of Saints & Sinners.[29]
