We Started Nothing (Digital Album)

by

The Ting Tings

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This album will probably be dismissed automatically by people like myself for being too manufactured, too saccharine, or too whatever, but the truth to this is that it is a fun, unapologetic, unassuming pop rock album that is a lot of fun.

Too often with rookie albums, whether pop or indie, the songs you've heard on the radio or wherever are light years better than the rest on the album (I'm looking squarely at you, MGMT). This is NOT the case with this album.

The album starts with two of their most biggest songs to date- Great DJ and That's Not My Name. Most bands would kill for just those two songs. Next up is Fruit Machine, which keeps the fun of the first two going with a lot less chanting. Traffic Light is a wonderful little jazz-pop plinky tune that will float in the summer breeze a lot this year.

Next up is the rousing Shut Up and Let Me Go, probably the most known in the US thanks to the latest iTunes/iPod commercial, with its solid rhythm section (a wise DJ will mash in Queen's Another One Bites The Dust). Keep Your Head follows with a fun popping, bopping synth line and drumming. If you haven't started dancing yet, this one will get you off you seat. Be The One follows a little more quietly, but still has a solid groove that will put a smile on your face.

We Walk starts in, and you think, "Uh, oh. They are going to get quiet and ballady now." Um, no. Not even close. Impacilla Carpisung is the Ting Tings getting crazy and a bit experimental. Not sure how I'm feeling on this one. We Started Nothing closes as a long jam that closes things well.

The last two are a bit 'scattered' to me, and don't really close the album the way it should be. Maybe if they'd been put earlier, or with a rousing closer after these two, it would leave me feeling more excited, but....hey- you've gotten 8 great songs to start out this album.

Really, highly recommend this one. I could easily see 12 year old girls absolutely loving these if given the chance. Fortunately, their parents will also enjoy this as well.

Attention -- apparently the Ting Tings have been pronounced the Big New Thing Du Jour in the world of pop music, as they dropped their debut album and were featured on an iPod commercial.

So are they worth it, listeners? Well, at least the title of "We Started Nothing" is forthright about what their album does -- it starts nothing, only produces a stream of catchy, simplistic pop with an indie-electronic flair. It's a fun little listen until after the first single, but then the easily-digestible dancey stuff ends up being galling after the first couple songs.

It opens with a strummed guitar and series of synth pops, with Kate White announcing, "Fed up with your indigestion/Swallow words one by one... Nothing but the local DJ/Said he had some songs to play." But the song kind of goes downhill with the chorus, which basically is "Imagine all the girls... And the boys... And the strings... And the drums" followed by bad chimp imitations. Lots of "ee ee ee ee!" and "ah ah ah ah!"

They turn out something a bit different in "That's Not My Name," a shimmying beat-heavy little tune that sounds like a teenage cheerleader trying to assert her individuality. "They call me quiet girl/But I'm a riot/Mary, Jo, Lisa/Always the same/That's not my name!/That's not my name!" If you have to tell someone you're a "riot," then you almost certainly aren't.

After that, things start sliding down, especially since the Ting Tings seem to lose some of their hook-producing skill. They turn out blippy little pop tune, a somewhat awkward jazz-lite ballad, pianopop riddled with synth and jiggling drumsticks, and a string of mildly catchy guitarpop. By "Impacilla Carpisung," it's pretty clear that they've run out of inspiration, and the last couple songs are a flurry of halfhearted beats and droney, bouncy riffs.

Unfortunately the nadir is the horrendously contrived thumpfest that is "Shut Up And Let Me Go," a breakup song that is just screaming to be covered by a MTV pop tart trying to prove her toughness and failing miserably -- "I ain't freakin'/I aint fakin' this/Shut up and let me go/Hey!"

By a certain point in the album, I felt like screaming those very words.

I'll be the first to admit it -- the Ting Tings are fun and catchy in a radio-friendly/MTV-potential way, with pop music that is heavy on hooks and light on musical complexity. The big problem with "We Started Nothing" is that despite a few interesting twists, it all more or less sounds the same -- they do the same kind of pop more or less from beginning to end, with only a couple exceptions like "That's Not My Name's" funky cheerleader vibe.

They put some fairly polished instrumentation -- some nimble guitarpop with solid drums and riffs, and sprinkles of synth to brighten up the repetitive melodies. They also drop in a bit of piano, horns and what sounds like a squeaking violin at times, but this doesn't really product a sense of variety. Instead, they just melt into the repeating hooks and riffs, until it's almost hard to remember they were there.

White has a nice feisty pop voice, and she can easily handled the softer moments ("When nothin' makes you feel good") as well as the gleeful snarls (see everything associated with "That's not my name!"). Unfortunately the lyrics she sings are often weirdly obtuse ("Your jeans were once so clean/I bet you changed your wardrobe since we met"), when they aren't awkward and kind of trite ("Winning streak that you had over me/Has turned into your broken tragedy").

"We Started Nothing" starts as a poppy guilty pleasure, but the Ting Tings start running on empty before too long. Easily digestible, and even more easily forgotten.