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Product Description
Review
If you plotted hopes for The Ting Tings’ second album on a graph, the result would be a drawn-out, four-year nosedive. After the boisterous, day-glo brilliance of their 2008 debut, We Started Nothing, the odd-couple duo seemed like one of UK pop’s brightest prospects. Then they announced their second album would be called Kunst, an instantly-wearisome joke that suggested sneery disdain for their pop fanbase, and they became mired in lengthy recording sessions in Berlin, that clichéd halfway house for disillusioned ‘serious’ artists. After dramatically abandoning a whole album of material, the question changed from "will the new album be good?" to "will it ever exist?".
Now it’s finally arrived, it seems reasonable to approach Sounds From Nowheresville with caution, particularly given the hideous cover image of a skeletonised Katie White and Jules de Martino. It might as well be daubed in blood and excreta, announcing "Pop Fans Stay Away". Which is plain bloody-mindedness because – despite its eclectic genre-hopping and snotty art-punk attitude – this is first and foremost a pop album (indeed, one song, the strumming, breathy Day to Day, sounds like a 99% DNA match for It’s OK!, by those revered art-house rebels Atomic Kitten).
The good news is that Sounds From Nowheresville is also a very enjoyable pop album. Opener Silence is a sleek scene-setter, carried along by a slow-burning electro throb and a White vocal that is cool and sweet as ice cream. It’s swiftly followed by Hit Me Down Sonny and Hang It Up, two propulsive blasts of elasticated pop funk which recapture the energy and bratty assurance of their debut, without ever quite relocating the killer choruses.
Elsewhere the album has an intentionally restless ‘playlist’ feel, though it often sounds like a playlist assembled half drunk. Guggenheim fuses beatnik-y spoken word verses with a splenetic punky chorus and narrowly succeeds through sheer eccentric charm, while the fidgety garage rock of Give It Back propels the listener along irresistibly. Less successfully, Soul Killing’s ingredients of a bright reggae groove and fidgety vocal hooks never quite add up to a satisfying dish, while the melodramatic, Spanish-tinged ballad In Your Life is more sketch than song.
Sounds From Nowheresville is neither the Klaxons-style second album catastrophe that seemed increasingly likely, nor the step forward into pop greatness that once seemed possible. It’s fun, but not a lot to show for four years work. If the duo wants to live up to that initial promise, they will need to up their game and their work rate.
--Jaime Gill
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Product Description
CD
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Crowy
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
When The Tings Tings first appeared on the scene they were fun, they were hip, they had imagination and they had some catchy pop songs. They also have a good look. Everything was in their favour. So expectations for their second album comes pretty high.
If i was to listen to the reviews of this album then i would have missed out on a super sounding album. Admittedly it is a more polished version of their first one which is no bad thing. More importantly it is still fun, still fresh and it still provides you with a blast of catchy pop tunes. Also the more i listen to it the more i think it captures some of the energy that the band project during their live performances.
I just wish the band were more prolific and released more material. I hope we don't have to wait another 4 years before the next album.
Anybody who has listened to the poor reviews and didn't purchase the album are certainly missing out on a treat !
It's still cool to like The Ting Tings...........
If i was to listen to the reviews of this album then i would have missed out on a super sounding album. Admittedly it is a more polished version of their first one which is no bad thing. More importantly it is still fun, still fresh and it still provides you with a blast of catchy pop tunes. Also the more i listen to it the more i think it captures some of the energy that the band project during their live performances.
I just wish the band were more prolific and released more material. I hope we don't have to wait another 4 years before the next album.
Anybody who has listened to the poor reviews and didn't purchase the album are certainly missing out on a treat !
It's still cool to like The Ting Tings...........
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By DeclanJay
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I find Ting Tings' album Sounds From Nowheresville an odd one. With the exception of Standard track 'Hang It Up' the rest of the standard tracks lack much likability, some sound too shout-out-like. Its not untill you start to listen to the Deluxe Edition tracks that you start to forgive the albums sound. Usually remixes are rather poor on Deluxe edition album releases, but these are the first that actually work well.
Overall the main album fails to provide really any interesting tracks, the deluxe tracks provide some interesting mixes and demos but doesnt save the albums release as a whole.
Overall the main album fails to provide really any interesting tracks, the deluxe tracks provide some interesting mixes and demos but doesnt save the albums release as a whole.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
'We started nothing', for me was great but the reviews suggest that The Ting Tings have got themselves a hate club?
Unlike the debut however, Sounds from Nowheresville, lives up to its name. Fantastic opening tracks have you thinking they've got an album full of catchy tracks that they have most definitely proved to be capable of. But no, after track 4 things fall apart for me. In 4 years unfortunately, The Tings Tings have only managed to come of with 33 mins of a mixed bag. Unfortunately, in 2012 this just isn't good enough to survive. Big shame.
Passive Me, Aggressive You
If you're looking for slightly similar style but way way better.
Unlike the debut however, Sounds from Nowheresville, lives up to its name. Fantastic opening tracks have you thinking they've got an album full of catchy tracks that they have most definitely proved to be capable of. But no, after track 4 things fall apart for me. In 4 years unfortunately, The Tings Tings have only managed to come of with 33 mins of a mixed bag. Unfortunately, in 2012 this just isn't good enough to survive. Big shame.
Passive Me, Aggressive You
If you're looking for slightly similar style but way way better.
By A. M. Davies
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Whilst not their best I felt it a shame that it was so low-priced on Amazon. I would have paid more than £2 (?) happily, but then I won't complain about saving money on the real thing! Plently of tunes, including half the CD filled with remixes which weren't simply a different back song but generally good. Stand out song for me is Soul killing with it's beat and happy context.
By Disco 72
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Excellent album - came on time as expected. Would definately buy more of their material. Also bought the same CD for a family member for Christmas.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Disappointing on balance. We Started Nothing was an engaging, catchy piece of work - I like it, my kids like it (4 and 7) and so does my wife. In fact it's the only album in my car she can bear to listen to! But this isn't even in the same league - in comparison it's tedious. A shame.
6 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By M. O. HAYNES
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Audio CD
It seems like a cliche to say that the Ting Tings have 'come of age', 'grown up' or 'matured', but 'Sounds from Nowheresville' certainly gives that impression. There is a good mix of modern styles on the album and a bigger sound than the debut 'We Started Nothing'.
What I thought was the teaser single 'Hands' does not feature on the album, which is a shame, but that said there's plenty of good tracks without it. There has been some comparison to the eclectic album 'Paul's Boutique' by The Beastie Boys, maybe because it marks a departure from the expected sound of the Ting Tings, but apart from that I don't see the relationship.
There's still some really catchy pop tunes on the album, but there's less lyrical repetition than on 'We Started Nothing' and there seems to be great big dollops of funk and soul loaded into the mix. Katie White is still mostly rapping out lyrics rather than singing what some people would call 'proper songs' but that's how the Ting Tings roll and it works brilliantly on tracks such as 'Hang It Up' and 'Soul Killing' (with a 'sub chorus' reminiscent of 'Another Brick in the Wall' by Pink Floyd and touches of Lily Allen) coupled with Jules de Martino's solid beats. That said there are some good electric guitars in 'Give it Back' which could go down well live if they really beef up the rock angle, parts of 'Guggenheim' are like something out of Grease, and the last track 'In Your Life' could be described as a haunting ballad with some serious classical sounding strings.
Some people who don't like change will describe this as a mish-mash, but I have listened to it now three times in a row and it is a serious grower, and so, despite the awful cover and the over-use of cowbells, I will give it five stars.
What I thought was the teaser single 'Hands' does not feature on the album, which is a shame, but that said there's plenty of good tracks without it. There has been some comparison to the eclectic album 'Paul's Boutique' by The Beastie Boys, maybe because it marks a departure from the expected sound of the Ting Tings, but apart from that I don't see the relationship.
There's still some really catchy pop tunes on the album, but there's less lyrical repetition than on 'We Started Nothing' and there seems to be great big dollops of funk and soul loaded into the mix. Katie White is still mostly rapping out lyrics rather than singing what some people would call 'proper songs' but that's how the Ting Tings roll and it works brilliantly on tracks such as 'Hang It Up' and 'Soul Killing' (with a 'sub chorus' reminiscent of 'Another Brick in the Wall' by Pink Floyd and touches of Lily Allen) coupled with Jules de Martino's solid beats. That said there are some good electric guitars in 'Give it Back' which could go down well live if they really beef up the rock angle, parts of 'Guggenheim' are like something out of Grease, and the last track 'In Your Life' could be described as a haunting ballad with some serious classical sounding strings.
Some people who don't like change will describe this as a mish-mash, but I have listened to it now three times in a row and it is a serious grower, and so, despite the awful cover and the over-use of cowbells, I will give it five stars.
13 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
"In the unlikely event that the Ting Tings do survive to make another album I'm sure they'll have perfected their technique. They obviously know this and, fully understanding the transient nature of pop and their place in the scheme of things too, just want to enjoy it while it lasts."
I wrote this in my 2008 review of the debut album which, despite myself, I enjoyed. Like most, I never expected a follow-up and, to be quite honest, I was like most people who let out a collective "Meh!" when news of a second Ting Tings album emerged.
Stories of entire albums being deleted to annoy ambitious record executives, badly-dyed hair on people definitely old enough to know better and tunes so irritating that Toodee and Foofa would be reaching for a shotgun, all circulated in the last few months. `Hands', the single that surfaced a year or so back, wasn't to be included. The new single `Hang It Up' - a curious hybrid of Nirvana guitars and JVC Force hip-hop - seemed to indicate a slightly harder-edged and louder TT had returned; more Sleigh Bells than Belle Stars. Unfortunately, included within this newfound amplification, came an exaggeration of the duo's all-too-apparent weaknesses; Katie White still couldn't sing. Jules De Martino definitely couldn't rap and the nursery-rhyme/sing-song nature of the songs grates after only one listen rather than forming a loveable earworm. In short, Sounds from Nowheresville is effectively the sound of the debut album gone well past its best. The artwork shows Katie and Jules as rotten corpses and this pretty much tells us all we need to know. The urge to make splendid pop has been superseded with a need to be accepted as `proper' songwriters and `real' musicians.
The real shame here is that this album need not have happened.... Read more ›
I wrote this in my 2008 review of the debut album which, despite myself, I enjoyed. Like most, I never expected a follow-up and, to be quite honest, I was like most people who let out a collective "Meh!" when news of a second Ting Tings album emerged.
Stories of entire albums being deleted to annoy ambitious record executives, badly-dyed hair on people definitely old enough to know better and tunes so irritating that Toodee and Foofa would be reaching for a shotgun, all circulated in the last few months. `Hands', the single that surfaced a year or so back, wasn't to be included. The new single `Hang It Up' - a curious hybrid of Nirvana guitars and JVC Force hip-hop - seemed to indicate a slightly harder-edged and louder TT had returned; more Sleigh Bells than Belle Stars. Unfortunately, included within this newfound amplification, came an exaggeration of the duo's all-too-apparent weaknesses; Katie White still couldn't sing. Jules De Martino definitely couldn't rap and the nursery-rhyme/sing-song nature of the songs grates after only one listen rather than forming a loveable earworm. In short, Sounds from Nowheresville is effectively the sound of the debut album gone well past its best. The artwork shows Katie and Jules as rotten corpses and this pretty much tells us all we need to know. The urge to make splendid pop has been superseded with a need to be accepted as `proper' songwriters and `real' musicians.
The real shame here is that this album need not have happened.... Read more ›
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3.9 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Grows on you (well it did me)
Their first album was one of those brilliant first albums which bands seem to be able to do, because they've a shedload of material to draw on, but the second album is always a... Read more
Published 12 months ago by M. Saxby
4.0 out of 5 stars
Welcome new sounds
It's taken 3 and a half years to release their 2nd album. After the success of the 1st album with it's catchy songs they released the single Hands mixed by Calvin Harris back in... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Matt182
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pleasant Surpise
After reading a few poor reviews of this album I wasn't holding up too much hope for it, although I bought it anyway. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Myshkin
5.0 out of 5 stars
Incredible
Reviewed said single but never got round to the album. Well, it`s a bloody amazing one from the said Ting Tings. Read more
Published 13 months ago by LM
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well worth the wait, love it.
This album offers the listener an aural delight, I love it. Was given Started Something as a gift having been impressed by their performance at Glastonbury a few years ago and was... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Lynn H
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Ting Tings Grow Up and Cock a Snoot at X-Factor Chartsville
A great album of diverse styles which is a really grower.
I bought this CD when it came out, despite some horrible reviews. Read more
I bought this CD when it came out, despite some horrible reviews. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Vilson
5.0 out of 5 stars
WORDS FROM THEIR NOWHERESVILLE UP THEIR BUMSVILLE.
I DON'T UNDERSTAND THE THREE STAR RATING?! It's very rarely I write reviews on these sites concerning a specific record as everybody acquires to different tastes. Read more
Published 14 months ago by jackNblonde
5.0 out of 5 stars
new material and better music
The Ting Tings first album was called We Started Nothing which was an amazing first album (9/10 )but now they have reached 10/10 .The new songs really suits their style. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Louis
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