Track list:
1. Great DJ
2. That’s Not My Name
3. Fruit Machine
4. Traffic Light
5. Shut Up and Let Me Go
6. Keep Your Head
7. Be the One
8. We Walk
9. Impacilla Carpisung
10. We Started Nothing

Release date: 16th May, 2008
Number of albums to date: 1st studio
Style: Pop, Indie
Language: English

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The Ting Tings is made up of English singer-songwriter Katie White and Jules De Martino who plays the drums, guitar and helps with programming. They formed after meeting at Leeds University and creating an “unintentional band” simply for the fun of it.

The Ting Tings’ We Started Nothing is a fine blend of electronic pop and indie music that is lightly mixed to create a clean cut album that never seems overbearing. However, this is not without its consequences. While for the most part of it The Ting Tings seem to engage the audience with their upbeat tunes, there are certain times when their music simply isn’t captivating and there is nothing to distinguish them from the crowd. The best examples of these are Traffic Light, Impacilla Carpisung and We Started Nothing.

That’s not to say there aren’t any good songs on the album – there’s quite a few actually! Great DJ proves to be a catchy opener even if musically and lyrically it’s pretty simple. That’s Not My Name stands out simply because of its catchy (and sometimes annoying) lyrics that mainly consist of “they call me Stacey, they call me Jane. That’s not my name, that’s not my name.” Shut Up and Let Me Go, like the rest of the decent songs on the album, gets its charm out of its catchy melody. Keep Your Head continues this trend. We Walk is slightly different by the fact that’s its of slower pace and could be considered the album’s only ‘ballad’ even though for the majority it does not resemble a ballad. The lyrics are slightly more advanced than the majority of the other songs on the album, although are extremely repetitive especially towards the end when it repeats “when nothing makes you feel good”. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing seeing as it, once again, rather catchy.

Katie White’s vocals aren’t all that great, her slight English accent is the only distinguishable feature, they can get weak and times and Katie doesn’t have a very broad range, however her vocals seem to do the job for this type of music. Jules De Martino vocals are featured briefly throughout some songs – his aren’t much better, but they do provide some variety.

We Started Nothing isn’t a bad album, but it’s not anything life changing. Some songs are catchy and others are bland so it’s a bit of a hit or miss, really. The Ting Tings have produced a good effort for their debut album by creating memorable melodies and lyrics and I’ll be interested to see how they progress in the future.

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Sounds…

like the epitome of a British, indie pop band.

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Overall Rating

 Three stars

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