Do I Like The Ting Tings?

I first heard about The Ting Tings in March of this year after reading NME and witnessing their over-hype machine du jour. The Ting Tings have been showered with all the fantastic accolades that I have come to expect from the British press. Where once stood The Arctic Monkeys, Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand, The Libertines, and at one time, even Menswe@r, now stands this Salford duo. While I am sick of hearing about NME's next new band to save British music, I stand by the fact their track record is pretty solid, well, with Menswe@r as the exception (don't get me wrong, I love those guys, but they were pretty much just a flash in the pan). The Libertines possessed an energy and lust for life that hadn't been present in English music in years, and they would have made it if it weren't for Pete Doherty's habitual desire to destroy himself at every possible opportunity. Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party have proven they can run with the big dogs and they aren't going to be relegated to one-hit-wonderdom (even though I'm still not a big fan of Bloc Party). And perhaps the biggest surprise of them all is The Arctic Monkeys. After all of the hype, everyone was certain that these boys were going to be forced back to their garage within a year. They have already released two very solid albums in a brief amount of time, not to mention Alex Turner's new project The Last Shadow Puppets which showcases songwriting versalitity and adaptability that proves this guy is no joke. So how do The Ting Tings fall in with the rest of this crew?

Maybe they will "save" British music; I just don't know how much I enjoy the life boat. I downloaded (legally) the single "Hey DJ" in March, and appreciated it for it's catchy, toe-tapping qualities. Then came the iPod commercial. The first couple of times I saw it, I didn't know it was them, and honestly, I didn't like it. Frankly I thought the song was a little annoying and remniscent of a less polished CSS. It has grown on me a little bit since, but I could still do without it. So that brings me to today. I noticed that their album We Started Nothing was available for download in the Zune marketplace ahead of the June 10th United States street date, so I decided to give it a try. After listening to the song that awarded them major-label distribution, "That's Not My Name," I realized that I am truly ambivalent about this band. What I don't like about their music is that Katie White rarely actually sings; it's more of an obnoxious snotty cheerleader chant throughout the songs. When she does sing, though, I love it, and I'm nostalgic for the britpop groups of old fronted by pretty blondes. The bridge in "That's Not My Name" could have been on a Dubstar album, but I could leave the rest of the track. "Fruitfly" is an improvement with a Shirley Bassey or Nancy Sinatra groove that would be right at home in swinging London. In "Traffic Light" we actually get to hear Katie White sing again, and I have to scratch my head in wonder. Why doesn't she do this all the time? She has a very jazzy tone to her vocals and it works far better than the "nyah-nyah" tone to the other songs. Musically, I love "Keep Your Head," with it's bouncy britpop sensibilities, but once again the cheerleader strikes back. The stand-out track for me is "Be The One" with its Peter Hook bassline and perfectly constructed pop riffs that absolutely could have been released in 1996 (and yes, for me, that's a good thing).

So after my initial album preview, I'm still left with ambivalence and haven't come up with an answer to the title of my post. I adore about half of the album, and the other half would only be enjoyable at a house party, which is better than not being enjoyable at all, I guess. I've only listened to We Started Nothing once, so perhaps with more time I can figure out what the hell is going on with this band and whether or not the NME has its head up its ass.

The music video for "That's Not My Name':


By the way, if you click on my Zune card to the left of the blog, you can scroll through the music I've recently listened to. The Ting Tings album should be on there. If you select it, you can preview the tracks for yourself and let me know what you think of it.