The Ting Tings: Reboot
Katie and Jules. Sigh.
I was at the Manchester Odeon to watch a movie. Before the film, an ad came on for BBC Radio 1. The image was a stage set for a music performance. It had drums, guitars, all very dark, almost black. No band. Some music came on minus the funny, wonderful, friendly voice of Katie. This was all music instrumental and it BANGGGED.
The way the tune builds and builds, gradually layering different instruments, is a sure way to help you understand the technical brilliance of these people. Getting louder so gradually, getting quicker perhaps. Crescendo and fade.
It is experiences like these, totally unexpected, that can hit you with force. I have never forgotten it. I have no idea what movie it was. That day was sometime in 2008 and we were all different people. The Ting Tings were a Salford dance outfit angry at a nomenclaturical mixup. Katie had a high poppy voice back then. Then they went stratospheric. Although these were pre-streaming days, the main edit of That’s Not My Name has been listened to over 100 million times. Many moons before Brat summer, that was really The Ting Tings’ summer. Then they fucked off.
The Ting Tings are back. Thank goodness, but how! They are now a roots Americana outfit from somewhere in Tennessee. Nobody was bowled over more completely than me. I am no longer living in Ducie Warehouse, Northern Quarter: now settled with child in England's Hollywood just outside London, and dreaming of Nashville myself. These tings are not a coincidence. Seizing the diem, I ordered a CD and vinyl combo with some kind of signed postcardy thingy. It is available on 6th June and the band are playing Oslo House, Hackney on 9th June.
What I enjoy about this story, especially at my age, at their age, is what it says about survival and rebirth. The Ting Tings have been constantly evolving their sound and their look. They are still authentically themselves every time. But it shows the breadth of their tastes and talent that they can be both a dance band and a country act and (in some ways) at the same time.
Katie is barely forty, which I find genuinely striking. Jules is an old twat of course, even older than I am. But he wears it well! You cannot tell he's pushing 70*.
I think the reason for their apparent immortality is that they still keep it real. They must have made a ton of money to rest for as long as they have. I read somewhere recently that artists only go dark in certain places. If you don't hear about them, they are just creating someplace you're not looking. That is certainly the case here. And that place is, surprisingly, Ibiza.
It cannot be a coincidence that The Dixie Chicks have an album called Home? It is also sort of brownish. Home by The Ting Tings is an achievement and I have only heard half of it.
It was recorded in a wooden decked analogue studio and is an easy breezy yacht rock album committed to traditional songwriting inspired by their all-time favourites, Fleetwood Mac, Dire Straits, The Eagles, The Carpenters, Crosby Stills & Nash, Supertramp, Christopher Cross, best heard in a car, preferably with the sea in view and the windows down.
These are all the bands I love, most especially Fleetwood Mac. I love Manchester and Salford, and the north of England and the American south. Do they have room for a third member who cannot sing but can write like a knob, and knows his way around the right 3 chords? Their summary implies automobiles and desert roads and we have all the Gs of Country here.
PAUL DETTMANN
And so to the music. Dreaming immediately made me think of Fleetwood Mac's Dreams. This is a shame because all of these new tunes are genuinely original creations. Yes the inspo is made clear and is not subtle, but they are thoughtful tunes. They describe the album as yacht rock themselves. There is a kind of dance texture to some of them. There is not a whole lot of acoustic guitar evident anywhere and this makes a change from my usual listening. It's a solid, mellow start.
Good People Do Bad Things is more catchy and memorable. It has that chugging feel of a driving song. I have it on now. It's great. Eagles yes, if they had Linda Ronstadt that is. It has rough edges deliberately left in the vocals. It has a simple sentiment that is typical of Country. There's no explicit story here but never mind, you can have too many stories about bar fights and sawdust.
Danced On The Wire is my favourite of the new tracks. It is mainly Jules. Something about apple trees in Glastonbury or somewhere in Somerset. It's catchy and sweet and very, very sad somehow. A song about balance and there not being such a thing as the whole truth.
In the middle of the night, the places we'll say we'll be
We watched everybody leave, we held on desperately
Oh, what a day, oh, what a day to leave
We danced on the wire, waited patiently
I cannot wait to bring you the rest of the album. More than anything it is exciting that people from my past have exploded back into my present, and they are from my neck of the woods. It is so nice to be able to talk about British Country acts. We all love America and we would love it less if we were American. You can pre-save Home here.
* The Ting Tings' legal team would like to specify that Jules is actually 57.
