The Ting Tings, We Started Nothing
Featured Album
A promising debut from a band that — for better or worse — started something
In "Shut Up and Let Me Go," the Ting Tings' frontlady Katie White shouts, "I was something un-ignorable" — and un-ignorable is exactly what her band became after that song was used in an iPod commercial in April of 2008. The British duo was already on the charts overseas, but that song, off their debut LP We Started Nothing, launched their career in the U.S., and it's one of music licensing's best success stories.
We Started Nothing thrives on White's playful cheerleader yelps mixed with garage-band guitars and simple percussion from her sunglasses-wearing co-conspirator Jules Di Martino. The tunes are catchy in their own right, but also take obvious cues from the likes of the Ramones (the "10 minutes to go" refrain in "Keep Your Head"), the Cure (the synth and bass combo in "Be The One") and newer acts like The Go! Team (the chanting and horns in the title track). The album falls short with gimmicky lyrics that compare relationships to traffic signals ("Traffic Light") and slot machines ("Fruit Machine, complete with a chorus of "kerching, kerching, boy"), but ultimately it's a promising debut from a band that can no longer stay they started nothing.
