Back in 2012, the negative consensus to Salford duo The Ting Tings’ difficult second album Sounds from Nowheresville felt like a witch hunt. Critics persecuted the genre-hopping and their super abundant imitational range of styles: r&b, ska, new wave and rap, despite the fact their debut already teased at their ability to be unrestrictive, show playfulness whilst still maintaining an entertainment value.
It was an identical uproar that torched Jason Mraz’s A to Z and unfairly slammed it for the same free-spirit method. Katie White and Jules De Martino were clearly upset with their media reaction and have launched a gung-ho attack on their oppressors in the third release Super Critical.
Their revenge concept runs throughout the album and is obvious from the start. Just looking at the sleeve alone, you can see a metaphorical kaleidoscopic image which commonly represents self-doubt supplementing the album title’s aim at presenting injustice.
The style borrowing method which was jeered before hasn’t been disregarded and instead has been sarcastically embraced. Like English musician Lily Allen, they have used self-irony successfully as an expression in their lyrics. It’s a risky strategy but it comes off as quite charming and illustrates their point efficiently. In lead singer Wrong Club, they latch onto the resurgence of Nile Rodgers signature disco, whilst recycling lyrics from In Deep’s Last Night A DJ Saved My Life. Infact, that style of funk guitar is evidently in the majority of their tracks making the album far more cohesive than their predecessor.
Opening title track Super Critical contains a distinctive trumpet and recalls another seventies influence in Michael Jackson’sWanna Be Starting Something. The title of the fifth track, the sitar and tabal drumming ballad Wabi Sabi is a direct reference to a Japanese mentality that accepts imperfection, which alludes to The Ting Tings’ hippy argument that they accept everything for its own individual merits and don’t super criticize like their critics.
On Only Love, White amusingly pokes fun at album ratings when she sings, “Ten outta ten, you are making me sigh,” However, on finale Failure, their risk strategy comes close to collapsing, when their concluding statement on music journalism comes across as juvenile idiocy and hypocritical when she states: “I’m so excited, I’m delighted. I’m a F-A-I-L-U-R-E,” in an unbearably silly chorus.
With the exception of the singles and the fun Ohio Players influenced Green Poison, there aren’t great compositions to savour but it’s the strong concept, self-irony and rebellious nature of their responsive lyrics that makes the album difficult to completely criticize. MTH
Highlights: Wrong Club, Green Poison, Do It Again
Proposed quote: “A strong rebellious concept champions their third outing".