Today, fans of music have incredibly wide-ranging tastes, pop music fans especially, as iTunes and file-sharing make it possible to listen to anything that ever came out, ever. You don’t have to be John Peel to have an incredible collection of music. While music writers make sure to keep the concept of music genres alive, musicians themselves draw from a huge array of influences (or at least say that they do) – Bon Iver works with Kanye West, Mike Watt works with Kelly Clarkson, etc. But without a solid core of identity, or the musical skill to pull of multiple personas, drawing from too many sounds can feel like no real sound at all. Such is the case with The Ting Tings’ sophomore Sounds From Nowheresville.
Multi-instrumentalist duo Jules de Martino and Katie White blew up in a massive way a few years back, as singles such as “That’s Not My Name” (QRO video) and “Shut Up and Let Me Go” (QRO video) grabbed everyone’s ear. Debut We Started Nothing (QRO review) kept that up, a simple-but-catchy infectious dance-rock energy and attitude. Yet with follow-up Sounds From Nowheresville, instead of deepening, the pair broadened to the point of dissipation.
The record jumps styles with abandon, from the slightly dark and epic build of opener “Silence” to the neo-grime that immediately follows in “Hit Me Down Sonny” and single “Hang It Up”. Then there’s neo-garage in the Sleigh Bells (QRO live review)-like “Give It Back” & biker girl-group “Guggenheim”, pseudo world hip-hop “Soul Killing” (at least aping Santigold, and not M.I.A…), monochrome dance-tech “One By One”, sweet girl-pop acoustic soul “Day To Day”, brightening synths “Help”, and intimate vocals & strings “In Your Life” to close. All of the sounds stand out in comparison with the others, but not in comparison with other purveyors of those styles. And other than White’s definite appeal, there’s Nothing for Nowheresville to hang its hat on (the group seems almost sarcastically obsessed with their own lack of a center).
White has said that they wanted Nowheresville to feel like a playlist (another music item that’s much more common in these .mp3 days), and wanted the listener to wonder whether the same band did each song. While an interesting idea on the face of it, there’s a reason artists don’t actually do that: it’s nigh impossible to pull off. Even the best multi-artist compilations are either in one genre, united in purpose, or just composed of some of the best songs by some of the best artists ever. Unfortunately, Sounds From Nowheresville just comes off as a band who doesn’t know who they are, or even who they want to be, trying on different hats for the hell of it, finding none of them particularly remarkable, so just slapping them all together and calling it an album.
MP3 Stream: “Hang It Up“
