Ting Tings: We Started Nothing
Monday, 02, Jun 2008 04:29
Columbia Records out May 19th.
In a nutshell...
Fashionable, chart-topping, but ultimately throwaway pop from Salford duo.
What's it all about?
Hotly tipped to storm the upper echelons of the pop-world by any number of critics earlier this year, the Ting Tings - composed of Jules De Martino (drums, guitar, vocals) and Katie White (vocals, guitar, bass drum) - compose a slightly raffish pop-music, sliced with a little nu-rave style. They are brash, bold and very much the flavour of the moment. However, they are musically limited and are unlikely to have any lasting impact on popular culture. Key to the group's success is the sultry appearance of White as she pouts and screams her way through the ten tracks included here - but once this novelty wears off there is very little beneath the shiny veneer.
Who's it by
We Started Nothing is the debt record from the pair. Although both have previous. De Martino started out in a teenage band called Babakoto, releasing one single - called "Just to Get By" - way back the 1980s. He was also in a rock outfit called Mojo Pin. White served her apprenticeship in teenage girl-group TKO, with little success. However, together they appear to have achieved more than the sum of their parts.
Having met at The Mill, in Salford - a home to artists and emerging creative ventures dealing in everything from fine art to theatre and film - the pair played a number of smaller intimate gigs, honing their talent. One thing led to another as the story goes, with the Ting Tings eventually signed to Columbia. This shows in their polished and expensive sound, with even the first album making the new duo sound like consummate, careerist professionals.
As an example...
"They call me Jane, but that's not my name." - That's Not My Name
"She's 14 and intimidated, getting pulled from the opposite side/Until it breaks down, and we blame it on the wrong crowd." - Keep Your Head
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys
High. The Ting Tings have major label support - despite the professed independent origin and previous graft on the toilet circuit - doubtlessly a team of stylists, producers and photographers and are certain to occupy the top spot for a number of weeks.
What the others say
"It is not hard to imagine the Ting Tings coming on stage at a house party in the wee hours and raising the roof - as, legend has it, was the way with their early gigs - but tonight the lid stayed firmly on." - Tom Hughes, Guardian.
"The Ting Tings certainly make a distinctive, beguiling sound, part Go! Team shouty vocals, part Gossip garage-y bite and, at their must bubbly, part Hot Chip electropop." - Chris Mugan, Independent.
So is it any good?
In the short term the record is a, admittedly pale, ray of sunshine. The bouncy enthusiasm and crude innuendo are likely to get the youngsters dancing on the tables, but the joys are short lived. The group's signature track, That's Not My Name is a cut above the rest of the material, capturing the urgency and, albeit, designer, restless, frenetic energy of the group. But, outside of this, there is little to see here. Without even mentioning the abysmal lyrics, all sickly sweet school girl poetry, there just isn't enough depth to We Started Nothing. Tracks are thin, backing tracks stretched too thin, with the two performers adding their own embellishments.
Keep Your Head sounds like Avril Lavigne, bubblegum pop with even less character. Teenage observations passed off as insight. Traffic Light goes for the cute touch, with White adopting a straight vocal for the first time on the album, sounding a little like the All Girl Summer Fun Band, but again the impact is marginal and the potential for repeated listens minimal.
Indeed White herself freely admits: "I just didn't have any knowledge of music, good music anyway." And this is apparent. A band with more money than talent and more fans than they deserve.
5/10
Christopher O'Toole