Four years after their debut album, English musical duo The Ting Tings released their second album “Sounds from Nowheresville” on March 13.
After canceling the release of their second album in 2010 fearing that it sounded too mainstream, The Ting Tings duo Katie White and Jules de Martino held off the release and got back in the studio for another two years.
Formed in 2007, The Ting Tings gained their fame following the release of “We Started Nothing” in May 2008. Their singles “Shut Up and Let Me Go” and “We Started Nothing” were featured in “Gossip Girl” while other various songs off of the album were heard on feature films such as “Slumdog Millionaire” and “The House Bunny.”
“Sounds from Nowheresville” was recorded over an eight-month period in the basement of what used to be a jazz club in Berlin. With the influence of Fleetwood Mac, Pet Shop Boys and TLC, the unfinished LP was altered after returning to the UK and recording more tracks that the duo felt needed to be on the album.
This 10-track album was released with Columbia Records and each track is slightly less impressive than the last. The Ting Tings suffered a sophomore slump with this long awaited album leaving fans unimpressed.
As each full song shows no advancement since their first album, in short bursts the tracks have the ability to be catchy and effective, a trait that The Ting Tings have mastered. However, this makes audiences wonder if this album was made strictly for the purpose of exploiting their music as background tunes for commercial ads.
“Sounds From Nowheresville” opens with “Silence.” The first minute and a half sounds close to a crescendo marching band-esque track until the percussion swoops in, and then a keyboard fills the air with high-pitched sounds that repetitively carry on throughout the remainder of the song, providing no sense of excitement.
The bratty guitar riffs of the album’s single “Hang It Up” bring The Ting Tings in the ballpark of sounding like Sleigh Bells which is a pro in the sense of mirroring a five-star band and a con by not reflecting their own sound. The song’s two-note guitar part is catchy and worthy of a road trip playlist but lacks any sort of tune like their previous hit single “That’s Not My Name” off of their first album.
“Give It Back” all too closely resembles LCD Soundsystem’s track “North American Scum,” which shows this album again steering away from the pair’s original Ting Tings sound but keeping within the lines of being catchy and likeable.
Vocalist Katie White gives spoken word a shot and fails on “Guggenheim.” White tells the overly sung story of girl meets boy and falls in love and boy goes for popular hot girl leaving the girl in love behind. Boring.
It is overly apparent that The Ting Tings need a dollar or two to step up their game. The duo appears to have lost sight of the music on “Sounds From Nowheresville” and rather focused on making hits to be played on cable television. As a musical production the album will be lost, but there is no doubt that songs from this LP will show up out of nowhere on a television show coming soon.
