I felt under the weather all day
today. On Saturday I ate a whole lot of potato chips, jujubes and two slices of
pizza. I don’t eat that much crap anymore and my system can’t handle it. Washing
it down with rum was equally unwise. Damn stuff was like a dog wrapped ‘round
my leg.
Disc 623 is…. We Started Nothing
Artist: The Ting
Tings
Year of Release: 2008
What’s up with the Cover? Hey everyone - let's scrap book!
Let’s not.
How I Came To Know It: A while back I watched a whole bunch of Jools
Holland episodes and the Ting Tings were on a couple of them. I liked them and
I thought Sheila would like them though, so I bought her this album. As gifts
go it went…OK.
How It Stacks Up: The Ting Tings haven’t been around that long and
they only have two albums. “We Started Nothing” is the only one we’ve got, so
it can’t really stack up.
Rating: 3 stars but almost 4
Some would call me a musical snob,
and I admit that I can be a bit snobbish here and there when it comes to Top Forty
music. In my defence, if you are playing the percentages Top Forty and New
Country are the two most likely genres to be…er…not good. That was me being
kind. However, with “We Started Nothing”
the Ting Tings buck the trend, and deliver a fun, upbeat and intelligent pop
record.
By intelligent don’t mistake that
I mean the lyrics have a lot to say because they don’t. This album compares
people to traffic lights, roundabouts, and fruit machines (I think this last
one refers to a slot machine). These references aren’t particularly insightful
and at times they feel a bit forced.
The cleverness is more in the
composition, which is a damned sight more complicated in a good pop song than
most people give it credit. When you’re working with three chords things are
only going to go in so many directions. The Ting Tings keep things fresh with
interesting percussion decisions and grooves that are hard not to dance to.
To paraphrase Fatboy Slim, if a
song like “Shut Up and Let Me Go” don’t
make your booty move, your booty must be dead. “Great DJ” is a great club anthem that hopefully happened (I have no
idea; my clubbing days are a rare occurrence these days). The lyrics of “Great DJ” sum up the combination of
emptiness and fun this record provides:
“Imagine all the girls
And the boys
And the strings
And the drums…the drums…the drums.”
Not much to read, but if you’re
listening and you resist singing “the
drums…the drums…the drums” along with the record then you’re missing the
point. Also, you are missing a great deal of fun. If you aren’t going to get
out to a club at least let the Ting Tings encourage you to dance in your living
room – I know I do.
If I’m hearing them right, the
band has a lot of positive influences. “Keep
Your Head” has a melodic refrain that sounds like it was lifted from a Cure
song, except without all the teen angst. “Be
the One” has a pop ‘n’ wan feel of the Cure mixed with a bit of ‘Til
Tuesday. And although the result on “Be
The One” sounds a bit too much
like contemporaries Rilo Kiley it is a good likeness, not a bad one.
Other places they have the
frenetic dance fever of early B-52s as well. It may not be the case (I didn’t
look it up) but listening to this band I feel like they grew up appreciating a
lot of the good artists that came before. Maybe that’s why they called the
album “We Started Nothing.” If so then well played, Ting Tings, well played.
Lead singer Katie White isn’t
likely to win any singing competitions for pure vocal power, but she has a nice tone and these songs
perfectly suit her. In addition to being easy on the eyes (hey, I’m human) she
has a good feel for a song’s timing and knows how to ride in the back pocket of
the beat. It is harder than it looks but she does what you are supposed to, and
makes it feel easy.
After the oppressive listening
experience of Tool (however gifted) the Ting Tings were exactly the tonic I
needed to lift my spirits. This is a fun record, and I was surprised to find it
hadn’t done nearly as well in North America (it was a solid #1 record in the
UK, but floated between 8th and 78th on US music charts).
Maybe everybody thought it was indie and wanted to make sure it didn’t sell too
well, so it could stay cool.
Well, it is pop music, hipsters,
and that’s OK. In fact it is really good pop music. It may not change the
world, but it might just improve your mood, and it’s worth your time.
Best tracks: Great DJ, That’s Not My Name,
Shut Up and Let Me Go, Keep Your Head, We Started Nothing
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