Band: The Ting Tings
Album: We Started Nothing
Label: Columbia Records
Length: 37:51
Rating: 3.5/5
By: Stuart Paterson
Date: January 16, 2009

By this point, most people who pay attention to popular music have at least heard of The Ting Tings. Getting Shut Up And Let Me Go in an iPod commercial helped, but they’ve also appeared on the soundtracks for shows like 90210 and Gossip Girl and promoted themselves with appearances on late night talk shows. They’re yet another guy/girl indie-rock duo, but they have an infectious flair that justifies their existence.

The album opens with the first of many singles released so far: Great DJ. Strummed guitar chords foreshadow a recurring album motif, as does the stompy, minimalist dance-rock beat. Producer/musician Jules De Martino complements Katie White’s voice nicely with crisp, catchy production that includes synthesizers and drum machines as well as live instruments.

That’s Not My Name, also a single, is just as stripped-down, although in a retro, 80s pop-rock kind of way. At 5:12, it’s the second longest song on the album and it feels it, with an overly-long vamp at the end that no doubt kicks ass in concert, but gets a little tiresome at home.

The complexity of the opening beat to Fruit Machine is easy to overlook on a stereo, but on headphones it’s satisfying from a production standpoint to hear the quick samples of a cash register, change jingling, and other assorted percussive sounds along with that deep kick. The vocal line gives a hearty nod to Kasabian, but doesn’t come close enough to be dubbed a rip off.

Traffic Light stands out as one of the more adventurous tracks, as White gets a chance to shed to show off her vocal prowess with some really charming singing over top of the eclectic music. Near the end, the vocals (with support from Martino) form a round, which is probably a sly joke on the “roundabout” mentioned in the lyrics.

Halfway through the album comes the instantly-recognizable Shut Up And Let Me Go, which, to once again refer to Kasabian, could easily end up being their L.S.F. That is to say, the one single that eclipses the rest of their work. It certainly is solid, though, making good use of the aforementioned guitar strumming, danceable beat and catchy refrain.

After that, the album putters around a bit with the ironically upbeat-yet-dull combo of Keep Your Head and Be The One (another single, in the UK), but gets its wind back with We Walk, one of the album’s non-single highlights. The piano intro is misleading, suggesting an Elton John-esque ballad, but it soon segues into an appropriately walking-paced, serious-sounding groove. Various instruments are layered on until the song’s tension mounts to a full-stop conclusion, leaving one of the best impressions of any song on the record. It will be shocking if it doesn’t get released as a single at some point.

The strangely-titled Impacilla Carpisung sees them getting esoteric, with White sounding like she’s singing in tongues and only “Can you feel it? It’s all around…” as lyrics printed in the booklet.

The title track does a good job of closing the album, clocking in at a robust 6:22, although it initially sounds as though it’s going to be a funky cover of Blur’s Song 2. The familiar-sounding strumming plays throughout the song as a foundation on which they build a groovy jam, even working in a full horn section towards the end.

Since the album is so concise, there’s hardly time to get bored while listening to it from start to finish. It feels a little lop-sided, with most of the best songs (read: singles) in the first half and the not-so-scorching album tracks in the latter, but with only 10 songs total, it’s not that awkward.

There are plenty of similar-sounding bands -- or duos -- out there, but with their debut album, The Ting Tings have solidified themselves as fresh players in the scene. They avoid pretension where it’s so easy to sound elitist and they seem to be having fun along the way.

They may not have started anything, but they certainly fit right in.