The Ting Tings – Hands
Eeeeeh!!!…
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[6.71]
Iain Mew: “That’s Not My Name” seems so, so, long ago for some reason. Maybe it’s the way that Florence and the Machine, Ellie Goulding, La Roux (and soon Hurts?) have thoroughly taken over the pop-designated-as-alternative realm with music much more self-conciously serious, but it’s difficult to see where The Ting Tings will fit in in 2010. Filtering a characteristically infectious refrain through richer production and cavernous beats, this doesn’t reach the same level of spontaneous joy as they’ve managed before, and the approach is unlikely to make Katie White’s voice any less divisive.
[5]
Martin Skidmore: They can almost sing, just slightly off and with little feel for rhythm, and a tune exists, just about, but it all seems to be aspiring to mediocrity and convincingly achieving it.
[4]
Jessica Popper: Considering how quickly I got fed up with The Ting Tings the first time around, I didn’t have high expectations for their new album. In fact I’d hardly thought about it at all. Until now! They’ve turned into a poppier version of Le Tigre! The chorus is a bit repetitive, but I love the full electro sound and the bouncy, synthy beat. Another very surprising aspect is that “Hands” is produced by Calvin Harris. Despite his popularity with quite a few pop fans, I have never liked even one of Calvin’s own songs and haven’t been particularly impressed with his work for other artists either. Is this the beginning of a new improved era for The Ting Tings and for Calvin, or is it just a fluke?
[7]
Doug Robertson: I bloody love the Ting Tings, and will happily argue the case for “That’s Not My Name” being the single greatest song ever written until I bore everyone around me – well, everyone that’s left given my tendency to put the song on a loop if I’m allowed anywhere near the music at a party – but even I was slightly nervous when I listened to this for the first time in case the near perfection of the first album was either a fluke or, worse, something they were unable to move on from. It’s with some satisfaction and relief, then, that I can say that I still bloody love the Ting Tings, as this song happily sits atop the mountain of pop perfection, letting its hook covered tendrils fall down, slip into your earhole and attach itself firmly to the dance centre of your brain. It’s like late period Rachel Stevens, only with a personality and without the sense of desperation. A multi-limbed spider of a song that will wiggle and wriggle and jiggle inside you, regardless of whether you let it or not. Hands down, this is amazing.
[10]
Anthony Easton: For a song that is mostly about working too hard, and working too hard in a transglobal sense, this song is so fucking easy — not sleazy easy, not lazy easy, but constructed in such a way that pleasure supercedes any other concern. Maybe it’s elegance, maybe it’s grace, but it’s a little too roughed up around the edges for both of those. Fun! (extra point for handclaps)
[9]
Mallory O’Donnell: I like a lot of the tings that go into this (the Bowie nod, the stupid chorus, the brashness of the production), but am unable to work up enough enthusiasm to bust out even one solitary hand. A big part of the problem is Ms. Ting, who has a voice any high school librarian would envy. The strangely lesser part is that every bit here sounds lifted from another, much worthier jam.
[4]
Katherine St Asaph: The Ting Tings generally have the same effect on me as scratching an emery board, so this is a welcome change. The first few seconds almost sound like they’ve gone downtempo — there’s a Nicola Hitchcock track just like this — but the rest is all needle-poised synthpop. Seems like this is damn near everyone’s Big New Direction, but I don’t care when it’s done this well. “Clap your hands if you’re working too hard” deserves to be a mantra.
[8]
Anybody else hear Stacey Q’s “Two of Hearts” on this?
“Two Of Hearts” and Rachel Stevens’ “So Good” are both 10s by me, so maybe that is why this is the first Ting Tings track that gets a hearty thumbs up from me (previous Ting Ting tracks struck me as both irresistible and well worth resisting) – though can’t say I hear a lot of similarities between this and the Stacey and the Rachel, except there’s a full dance sound in all three that previous Ting Tings couldn’t muster. “Two Of Hearts” and “Hands” both draw on the walking-bass era of disco, but Stacey’s delivery is vastly more free and easy and confident than Katie’s – free, easy, and confident not necessarily being better in principle than Katie’s studied and labored work at feeling, though in this instance they are better. But I also think Katie’s work gets where it needs to, and maybe there’s a bit of wail in it that is similar to Stacey’s bit of wail. I’m at 8 on this, and surprised.
Is her voice really that divisive? I’m stunned. I don’t hear anything out of the ordinary — in fact, that’s the thing; it’s so ordinary that I can’t imagine why anyone would be bothered by it.
I had no idea these were the women responsible for ‘That’s Not My Name.’ My least favorite song that they played during my one miserable year working out every night at the Washington and Lee Law School gym! (That’s right, I hated it even more than that song about 86,400 seconds in the day.) This is more conventionally synth-poppy (in a pretty dull way) and hence more to my liking, but I don’t find the hook interesting in the slightest and it’s the only scrap of an idea or melody that the song’s got, so, yeah, 5. There are so many songs like this that seem to work on the principle that a passable imitation of cheesy 80s pop, minus the cheesy seriousness that makes that stuff so much fun and plus a heaping dollop of ironic distance, is automatically a great song because, hey, at least you kind of sound like something else that was great. Much like the many sorry recent attempts to duplicate Motown, it doesn’t work.
This song is impressive.
I was not expecting a song as good as this one at all.
Her voice is TERRIBLE, one big stupid pose that’s not even a hundredth as cool as it thinks it is. Not heard this yet but “That’s Not My Name” is a strong contender for the Worst Song of the 00s. Oh my god I just remembered “and the drums and the drums and the drums” ad nauseam, OK, no mere contender, that WAS the worst song of the decade.
IIRC she pulled off the remarkable trick of being really gratingly annoying AND completely characterless and boring. The worst of every possible world. I HATE THIS BAND SO MUCH AAARGH WHY ARE THEY BACK.
“you gave me a piano with all 88 keys” — surely artistic non-conformism demands either less than 88 (indie) or more (prog)
also Tray, I believe it’s one woman and one man (both twats).
Oh, I got confused by all the Staceys and Katies in the comments.
Well, they did do a song about that. (A terrible one.)