Customer Reviews

We Started Nothing

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

Love or hate them!
This is pop which seems like it's just been plucked from thin air.
It's unashamedly mainstream-orientated manufactured pop groups like "Girls Aloud".
The Salford duo have found themselves near the top of various 2008 hot-tip lists. Pitched somewhere between vogueish, ravey indie and all-out chart-attack pop, they perform as a drummer-singer pair, with much of the music appearing out of the ether via the magic of technology, giving singer Katie White plenty of room to strut, pout, clap and yelp her way through their bouncy, punchy songs.
There are echoes of that dumb-yet-knowing proto-punk produced by Jonathan Richman And The Modern Lovers , or maybe a nod towards the sardonic pop of "The Cramps" and the "B-52s".
Licking their wounds after trial-by-record-label with former outfit, Dear Eskimo, the Salford duo stared into the roiling canyon of resentment - and decided to go drinking instead. The result is the delirious joy-gasm known as "We Started Nothing", and the soundtrack to what can only be described as a Ting Tings moment.
"That's Not My Name", Katie White's rant at the cynical music industry, is an insolent anthem which deserves a place in pop posterity. It is a feminist tirade you can only write when you have the benefit of hindsight. It was inspired by the experience of singer/guitarist, Katie White, who was offered fame-for-flesh in their former incarnation. The track laments forgettable female starlets baring all for the lads. With idealism duly quashed, it's a refreshingly jovial indictment of modern music which, nonetheless, packs a punch. It's a great empowering chant.
Then there's the smile-inducing "Shut Up And Let Me Go", a raw Chic-style bit of funk topped by man-bating lyric.
Of the 10 tracks, six are more like chants than songs. The opener "Great DJ" is an infectious ditty that slips a chugging guitar riff and some cheeky bleeps around De Martino's hypnotic bass drum. Equally impressive are "Impacilla Carpisung", all squelchy sound effects and funky disco beats, and the title track, which offers six minutes of pure guitar-funk sunshine.
There are two more melodic tracks, the prettily chiming "Be the One" and the flabbergastingly twee lullaby "Traffic Light".
The most memorable moment: the bit in "Great DJ" where Katie White cheeps, "And the strings: ee-ee-ee-ee..."
Yes, she's mimicking the sound of violins. Either the best or worst lyric of 2008, we can't decide.
This duo aren't going to be going home alone any time soon. Their staggering six-minute title track is like a dishevelled dawn chorus, serenading the last men standing.
Taken as a whole, this debut sparkles more often than it grates. Despite their age and false starts, "We Started Nothing" sounds like the work of two young whippersnappers ready to take on the world.
Whatever happens next, nobody will be forgetting their name from now on.
As debut albums go, it's not all good, but occasionally it's glorious.
Pick of the album:"That's Not My Name", "We Walk", "We Started Nothing", "Great DJ", "Be the One", and "Shut Up and Let Me Go".
Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers
Songs the Lord Taught Us
Fiends of Dope Island
Funplex
Can't Speak French Pt. 1

My new favorite album. Take the White Stripes and reverse the roles. Add in some Devo, electrified disco and Cibo Matto. This album is a blast.

The Ting Tings are the epitome of the fun and funky British pop. They've been in heavy rotation on my Ipod - I dare you to hear 'Fruit Machine' and not want to sing and dance along. What's it about Brits that they have such fun bands, and make pop music that doesn't sound cheap or embarrassingly mindless? Just for comparison, if you liked Lilly Allen, you should like The Ting Tings.

The Ting Tings shot like a meteor onto the UK music scene in 2007, helped along by coverage from UK music rag NME. A year later, they reach to No. 1 in the UK singles chart and the debut album arrives.

"We Started Nothing" (10 tracks; 38 min.) starts off with the irresitable double blast of "Great DJ" and "That's Not My Name" (originaly released as a double-A single in 2007, and "That's Not My Name" re-released a year later, and reaching No.1 on the UK singles chart last month). But the fun doesn't stop there. The duo keeps things moving quite nicely, with "Shut Up and Let Me Go" (which reminds me of that song "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life" of yesteryear), and it sounds like another sure-fire single to me. The second half of the album is not as strong, but still features several great tracks like "Keep Your Head", "Be The One", and in particular the closer, the 6+ min. title track, a great way to sum up the album.

In all, these songs just flow by in no time and before you know it you'll find yourself playing this again and again. "We Started Nothing" is not a grand 'artistic' statement, just an album with great fun, dance-along songs. I'll be catching the Ting Tings at the Monolith Festival (at the Red Rocks) in September, where they'll be playing the intimate WOXY-curated stage, and I can't wait to see how these songs will translate in a live setting. Totally unrelated, the internet-only station WOXY ("BAM! The Future of Rock'n'Roll!") plays these guys regularly, and they are the best source for indie music in the US, bar none.

I saw the Ting Tings at SXSW this year and they were so freaking good. Every song is catchy and unique. So glad to see these guys succeed after their previous rough start with another band. As the White Stripes proved in the past a good drummer and a kick-@ss singer are a great way to just get to the heart of a song. Highly recommended for fans of no-apologies pop.

The Ting Tings can be bratty, poppy, and cheerleaderish all at the same time, We Started Nothing is a great example of their amazing music, Katie White's British, Capturing voice makes all of their songs, a band with only two people, and an incredible pop band, The Ting Tings are the center of all the up-beat music today.

When I first heard a performance by this English duo on MTV's Palladia HD, I immediately thought wow, that's really catchy and different. Are they a one-hit wonder or do they have the talent to play with this unique, off-beat vibe in other ways? Turns out the latter, as evidence by this clunker-free album and the rapid assault onto the UK Singles Chart.

I was concerned, actually, when I heard the opening riff on "That's Not My Name" because it sounded to me like a rehash of Toni Basil, which wouldn't have worked because "Hey Mickey" was never, er, "my thing," but the song goes in a different direction, and for a chart-topping, devil-may-care pop single it has an agreeable level of variety and complexity. It's my least favorite track on the album, but since it's also the most popular one, the band's certainly doing something right here.

The lyrics and videos are what they are, but White and De Martino have gobs of talent, and if they carry their raw, effervescent attitude and musical inventiveness through multiple albums, I think they'll easily find themselves in a position not unlike the B-52s. That is, wildly popular and probably rich. Good luck to them. If you have eclectic tastes and like to manage iPod playlists that range from Beethoven to Rush to, well, this, then I definitely suggest checking it out.

My Latest Novel
Dasha

The Ting Tings music reminds me a great deal of the first wave of female dominated punk bands from the UK. If you liked X-Ray Spex, Essential Logic, the Slits, the Raincoats, the Delta Five, and the Au Pairs then "We Started Nothing" is probably right up your alley.

Although the sub-genre of punk rock doesn't sound nearly as radical as it did in 1978, the Ting Tings do a good job of pulling off the sassy, smart and subversive rock of thier elder UK riot grrrls

I think those that say they don't like this cd wouldn't like any band that was "the next big thing." Get over yourselves and just have some fun. This is Brit pop fun at it's finest. It's a little bit of The Primitives and The Sundays mixed in with some Avril Lavigne and Gwen Stefani.