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We Started Nothing by The Ting Tings |
 In pop music, catchiness and obnoxiousness often go hand in hand, but on the Ting Tings' debut album, We Started Nothing, they're locked in a death grip. The duo's new wave-worshiping mix of dance and indie pop -which grafts chugging guitar and bashed drums onto looping structures and proudly plastic keyboards- is polished, but far from polite.Since they've got a real knack for writing songs that stick in your head whether you want them to or not, the Ting Tings' songs are fun in very small doses. They're a singles band at heart, though, and they wear out their welcome all too quickly on We Started Nothing. |
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 Names can be deceiving, however, since their 2007 major-label debut, Devils & Angels, is something entirely unexpected: a genuine pop album, one that's informed by new wave but winds up sounding like a good rock record from 1985. Much of this sounds learned second-hand from Ben Folds but Mêlée is notably lacking in Folds' perma-smirk. Even the cover of Hall & Oates' classic "You Make My Dreams" is done sans irony: unlike many punk covers, this is a celebration of song, not cheese. Devils & Angels proves that it's no fluke as it showcases the rare punk-pop band that places a greater emphasis on pop than punk to often addictive results. |
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Various Artists “French Electro Connection” |
 Many years after the worldwide success of Cerrone and Jean Michel Jarre, a new rhythm was coming from all parts of the country, invading every night club and making more and more people dance. Decades of new French artists suddenly appeared on stage. All together, they share the same idea: to break the music walls and to create a new sound by mixing electro, rock and pop beats. A great way to introduce the new French electro-scene. |
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Cajun Dance Party “The Colorful Life” |
 Cajun Dance Party’s debut album is an album with great sound, and as a tight band without songs is kind of a waste though, luckily Cajun Dance Party deliver some corking good rockers like The Race, Colorful Life and Amylase, add a couple nice ballads (No Joanna, Buttercups) to give the record some balance and the dramatic The Hill, The View & the Lights ends the record on an ambitious, satisfying note. Cajun Dance Party isn't doing anything too unique or special here but they do what they do with conviction and guts and that's enough to make this a very good debut. |
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 Can an album really be a departure if it's the first thing a group's released in 11 years? As radical reinventions go, Third is a psychedelic rock album. Keep in mind just how out-of-nowhere this all seems: The notion of a new Portishead album had, for many fans, fallen out of the realm of possibility. If Third had come out in 1999 or 2000, maybe writers would be calling it Portishead's answer to Massive Attack's Mezzanine, another third album by trip-hop icons eschewing dinner-conversation music by embracing anxiety and moodiness. Released now, it instead feels like a staggering transformation and a return to form that was never lost, an ideal adaptation by a group that many people didn't know they needed to hear again. |
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