sun 08/12/2024

CD: The Ting Tings – Sounds From Nowheresville | reviews, news & interviews

CD: The Ting Tings – Sounds From Nowheresville

CD: The Ting Tings – Sounds From Nowheresville

Katie White and Jules De Martino make not exactly beautiful music together, but it's fun

The Ting Tings inject new life into a successful formula

It’s four years since their extremely successful debut album. But then again it’s not easy to hone perfect dumb-ass pop music from just two or three major chords while still making it shine like a new gold coin.

The art of simplicity is a complex thing: in the Ting Ting’s case it’s about paring down, resisting overt sophistication, sounding freshly squeezed rather than made-from-concentrate, and being in your face without getting on your nerves. So has the long gestation period and rejection of a whole load of material they weren’t happy with resulted in another swaggering, kicking bag of hits?

Well, to start with I admire its brevity: 10 short, sharp songs come and go in a mere 33 minutes, ending with a strikingly stark (for the Ting Tings anyway) violin-accompanied ballad unlike anything they’ve done before. And for another, the nine tracks before it sound pretty much like the Ting Tings you know and may possibly love. Against my better judgement (which is how it should be) I grew to love “That’s Not My Name” and “Shut Up and Let Me Go”. Even after massive overexposure these two playground anthems still sound stroppily bubblegum-perfect to my ears.

Whether there are any songs here as timelessly glamtastic will only become evident when they’ve sufficiently tested our patience by invading every public space with piped music. For great pop tunes can’t be quantified by instant critical assessment – they sneak up on you, seduce you, and then possibly end up driving you insane. But on initial exposure, "Silence" has a compelling Indian raga/Phil Spector/Eurythmics vibe, and “Hit Me Down Sonny” is a bonkers cocktail of Blondie and MIA which was still buzzing agreeably around my head as I tried to find desiccated coconut in Sainsburys.

Watch the official video for 'Silence'

 

 

It was still buzzing agreeably around my head as I tried to find desiccated coconut in Sainsburys

rating

Editor Rating: 
3
Average: 3 (1 vote)

Explore topics

Share this article

Add comment

The future of Arts Journalism

 

You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!

We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d

And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters