In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well—some inspired by a weekly theme and some not, but always songs worth hearing. This week, in celebration of the new Black Keys record, our favorite songs by duos.
This week’s prompt brought a lot of bands to mind: I love Japandroids, The White Stripes, The Kills, Air, and so on, and so forth. But I’m going with Junior Senior, a Danish duo that released one of the best records of 2003. D-D-Don’t Don’t Stop The Beat came bursting out of northern Europe on the strength of “Move Your Feet,” the ridiculously catchy single that charted all over the world. That’s the track that made bandmates Jesper Mortensen and Jeppe Laursen famous—or at least “famous for being those guys who wrote that song,” since I’m not sure I could pick either of them out of a lineup.
I’m also personally more partial to “Shake Your Coconuts,” the sleazy but propulsive third single from the record. It’s not only the perfect track to hear first thing in the morning, but the quintessential summer track. Moreover, it’s got that kind of lush fullness that really burst forth from duos in the early ’00s, probably as the result of bands getting savvier about computers and multi-tracking, or as a reflection of the ridiculously affluent nature of the era. Either way, it’s a banging track, and one that reminds me, as always, that it’s an absolute crime that D-D-Don’t Don’t Stop The Beat is pretty much eternally present in bargain bins in record stores and online. (Seriously, a goddamn penny. What a steal!)