"Should have been a lawyer," barks Katie White on the Ting Tings' second album.  She certainly knows how to argue her case. In 2008, the English duo emerged as international stars with sassy punk- pop rants like "That's Not My Name." Here, the band again is at its best when White is proclaiming ("I'm gonna paint my face like the Guggenheim!") and dissing ("Liar, liar/Your words expire") in a voice pitched somewhere between cheerleader, rapper and Tourette's sufferer. The music dips into ska, Eighties electro and power ballads, and the sumptuously noirish torch song "In Your Life" proves White's heart is as big as her spleen.

Listen to "Hang It Up":

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• Photos: Random Notes

“Oh Sherrie”

Steve Perry's girlfriend Sherrie Swafford was actually in the studio when Perry began writing this song--his lone Top Ten hit as a solo act--with two co-writers. The trio began at midnight one night with just "Oh, Sherrie!" and "hold on, hold on." Three hours later, they had a complete song. Swafford, however, had to wait until the next day to hear it. "Sherrie actually got tired and went to bed," Perry said. She also appeared in the video, but their relationship did not hold on for long.