Where Are You Now (2 Unlimited song)

''No Limits'', sometimes ''No Limits!'', is the second studio album by Belgian/Dutch Eurodance band 2 Unlimited, released in May 1993. The album yielded five singles, including "No Limit", which reached number one in many European charts. The album went platinum in several countries. It was fronted by Ray Slijngaard performing the main rap and Anita Dels providing the chorus.

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 Albums Chart. At the time, many Eurodance acts were able to produce hit singles but were unable to capitalize on this with a commercially successful album. 2 Unlimited, however, broke the mold.

At the end of 1992, 2 Unlimited were still only known amongst those who followed chart music at the time. With the first single released from this album, "No Limit", this changed. It went to number 1 in the UK Singles Chart in early February (competing with " I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston), and spent five weeks there. This exposure led to them being parodied by the mainstream media with the television series ''Spitting Image'' parodying the track as "No Lyrics" due to its repetitive lyrical content. The second single from the album, "Tribal Dance", was released in 1993, followed by this album soon afterwards.

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 with all 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, where many of the tracks featured on it were instrumental, the artwork to this album featured band members Ray and Anita on the front cover.

Writing and composition

For the debut album, ''Get Ready!'', most of the writing had been done by Wilde and de Coster, with some input from Ray Slijngaard and other featured writers. 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.

United Kingdom release

The United Kingdom version of ''No Limits'', which was released on the PWL Continental label, is largely an instrumental album, having Ray Slijngaard's rap verses removed. The decision to do this was made by Pete Waterman, owner of the PWL record label. Waterman was also responsible for the removal of Slijngaard's rap verses from 2 Unlimited's single releases of Get Ready For This, Twilight Zone, Workaholic, The Magic Friend, ''No Limit'', ''Tribal Dance'' and ''Faces''.

This led to 2 Unlimited being mocked in the UK media, leading to nicknames like 2 Untalented, and Spitting Image's parody “There’s no lyrics”, along with ribbing by BBC
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