One band has been on everyone’s lips since the end of 2007 - The Ting Tings. Tipped for major stardom by fans and media alike, when the band finally re-released the single That’s Not My Name, it went straight to number one in the UK singles chart. They have appeared in an iPod advert with Shut Up And Let Me Go, were invited to perform on Later…with Jools Holland and headlined the NME awards tour. But can the stylish duo, the enigmatic Katie White and Jules De Martino, live up to the continuing hype machine?We Started Nothing is stacked to the front with the band’s best known songs. This isn’t such a bad thing as it leave the second half of the album open for new ideas and a chance to try something different. The album kicks off, in less than overwhelming style, with Great DJ. From the dour guitar opening to White’s disinterested vocals, highlighting the folly of a nine to five existence, the song finally gets going. The sparse lyrics of the chorus are brilliantly stretched out to twenty five seconds thanks to a few As and Es and White repeating ‘drums’ over and over again.
Big single That’s Not My Name is nothing short of pop perfection. Even at five minutes running time, it does everything. White’s opening ramble sounds completely improvised, as does the instrumentation, all drums and hand claps. But again the band’s knack for catchy choruses gives everything a lift. Again White sounds bored but bitter at the same time. When the duo struggled in their own bands before finding each other, the whole torrid experience left them alienated and frustrated with the music scene. And this seems to be the result. De Martino adds some great backing vocals, barely audible. White goes on to ask “Are you calling my darling? Are you calling me bird?” over some interesting guitars before the main vocal stomp in again. This must be a nightmare to perform live, particularly when a fourth vocal track emerges. It is a wonderful effect thanks to modern technology. De Martino gets the last word before a rather uninspired, but entirely appropriate, ending. A great song.
Fruit Machine, predictably full of quirky electronic samples, beeps and jangling coins, is a completely different formula. The verses are punchy around a slightly vacuous series of ‘ka-ching’ moments. Again White provides her own backing vocals, so the duo sound more like a band full of shouty teenagers. But the pace is relentless, even through the guitar break and White’s closing vocals. Yet behind all this quirky exterior is a cleaver song trying to get out. Lyrically “You hit the button one hundred times before. Now feel the fever as I leave you wanting more” and “hold me, nudge me, spinning me around. Where’s the money, can’t hear that clinking sound” add to the metaphor as White tells us that money can’t buy her love, and even then it’s a gamble. More signs of the band’s contradictory brilliance.
Traffic Light could be a completely different band. White’s vocals are light and airy and this time the subject is wrapped up in a road themed nursery rhyme: “Don’t you be a roundabout, not another roundabout. We’ve come this far yet back to the start. Don’t you be a roundabout”. It almost works. But there are too many musical gaps that sound like someone left a Casio keyboard on demo mode. White’s closing vocals (again layered) are great, as are the strings but it’s an idea stretched.
The final song of the first half is arguably the best musically. Shut Up And Let Me Go, with its funky guitars and crackly electronica, introduces White back to familiar vocal territory. Again, at times, it sounds like several layered vocal tracks, especially on the punchy chorus. There are more great lyrics within a seemingly air-headed delivery. “Holding me, I’m not containable. This time love is not sustainable” and “Moving on you’re not adorable. I want something un-ignorable”. Apparently they are smart enough to invent new words.
Keep Your Head starts the unknown and new part of the album. It is more 80s pop than anything before and White is superb, newly enthused as if performing new songs is something of a release after a set full of over-used back catalogue. White is now singing about the loneliness of fame and the emptiness of life beyond performance: “You know it’s over but you just can’t sleep. You’ve gotta face it - gotta go outside and do the day walk. Living with the lights off - Ain’t nobody home”. At just over a minute to go, the synths and (now) trademark layered vocals come back in.
Be The One is more of the same with White in more subdued, reflective mode, very reminiscent of Kathryn Williams. The production is also a lot softer. The band seems to have discovered a more complete sound with some gorgeous instrumentation as White asks “What you gonna offer now?”. They continue the art of finishing songs on style with some great strings and yes, layered (yawn) vocals. But it works so why change it?
We Walk starts with a delicate piano intro. Everything has suddenly got serious…then White comes in with breathy sultry wordless vocals before starting the song proper. This is a lot darker than the big ’hits’ but just as effective. The opening verse sums up the band’s position, in reaction to the current ’hype’: “You never alter. You’re always you. Everything’s breaking but I don’t care. Smash the rest up. Burn it down. Put us in the corner ’cause we’re into ideas”. This is the most sensible straight-forward song on the album. Excellent stuff.
Impacilla Carpisung is a strange song. White’s vocals are barely understandable, a mixture of English and gibberish. Maybe that is the effect the band were going for. Musically too it is a hotchpotch of ideas and styles, a thumping bass line, airy drums and some synths. Given that the band were showing some substance this feels like a step backwards.
The title track of We Started Nothing appears at the end of the album. At just over six minutes, it is a musically odyssey that will have Mark Ronson spinning in his one-dimensional talentless grave. A wonderful guitar loop forms the structure of the song and White’s voice is up a notch, more reminiscent of a female James Murphy (LCD Soundsystem). As the song progresses, the brass section emerges, a great addition - never overbearing and simple. It makes a great musical outro to the song and the album, leaving you wanting much much more. The closing lyric “All you know, ice is just a face skin deep” is intriguing.
We Started Nothing is an interesting album title - immediately suggesting that none of this frenzy and hype is anything to do with the band. They are not trend setters but genuine musicians to be taken seriously. Within a quirky indie-pop sound is real substance. There is no argument that White and De Martino are talented and this is a great debut. De Martino’s production may be a little one dimensional at times, relying on the same tricks, but it is never heavy-handed. It is an album split between the past and the present. Once the ‘hits’ are over with, a new sound develops. If anything, because of the expectation and pressure, the second half of the album is better than the first. As for the hype? Sometimes it is worth believing.
-- CS
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