As we prepare our next single (available soon!), we turn to other duos to keep the inspiration humming. Though we trust you will ultimately remain faithful to us, your favorite Divorce, we can’t resist sharing these eight temptations (two more installments to come). While you listen, we hope you’ll get in a few belted aaahs, mosh hops, hair whips, hip twists, and air synth riffs.
1. “Need Your Love,” Tennis
The primary members: Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley
Be sure to check out: The dry surprising beats in the opening, luscious vocals alternating between one catchy melody after another, and the way the gears grind when the song is slammed into a different tempo.
Favorite lyric: I need your love / And I need your touch / Like I need a bolt of lightning / From the sky above
2. “Impossible Tracks,” The Kills
The primary members: Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince
Be sure to check out: The low, gravelly driving guitar groove against the gorgy, angsty vocals.
Favorite lyric: And we hold our smiles inside / Like we’re holding back the tide / And we stride in perfect meter / Like the sun won’t ever rise
3. “Get It,” Run the Jewels
The primary members: El-P and Killer Mike
Be sure to check out: The syncopated rhythms, Killer Mike’s “nah,” sharply pruned samples that spray and burst into the mix, and vocals that both dodge and lumber with agility and heft.
Favorite lyric: I’m stuck in a time capsule when rap was actually factual / Meaning shit you spit might cause killers to come and clap at you / Stupid, goofy, stooly, the gooch in Gucci will slap you / And that go for the cop-kissing cats that’s in the back of you
4. “Hold Me Close,” Overcoats
The primary members: Hana Elion and JJ Mitchell
Be sure to check out: The harmonies throughout, but especially on the lyrics “so hold me close till the night turns gray / different faces but the song’s the same,” which first occur 29 seconds in on the recording below; also, after a whole song of vocal parts that veer toward each other and away, at the end the two voices are separated and you hear clearly each voice’s particular timbre.
Favorite lyric: He’s a man of warnings / Talks like I need to know / But he’ll always own / The ground I walk alone
5. “It’s Just Us Now,” Sleigh Bells
The primary members: Alexis Krauss and Derek Edward Miller
Be sure to check out: The heartbeat against a baroque guitar riff in the opening measures, and the cathartic release in the belted vocals of the chorus.
Favorite Lyric: Free of wreckage / Down below licking streets / I believe deeply / In decency (indecency) / And when I’m conscious, I am cursed / Shark teeth the size of pick-up trucks / All that flesh and blood
6. “It’s a Sin,” Pet Shop Boys
The primary members: Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe
Be sure to check out: The beat you can’t help but move to even while reflecting on shame and sin; the high register of diction while still sounding naughty and rock-star-ish (At school they taught me how to be / So pure in thought and word and deed / They didn’t quite succeed); the clever way “too” and “to” hold themselves out like hooks for “It’s a sin” to hang from; the feeling evoked in the one line that diverges from the otherwise careful rhyming: “Cause I didn’t care / And I still don’t understand.”
Favorite lyric: Father, forgive me / I tried not to do it / Turned over a new leaf / Then tore right through it
7. “Hey Ya!” Outkast
The primary members: André 3000 and Big Boi
Be sure to check out: The irresistible urge to hop up and around the moment you hear “My baby don’t mess around”; the repetition of “alright” that means both “hold on” and “all’s good”; the surprise of “shake it” becoming about Polaroid pictures; utter, ongoing, glorious imaginative spins.
Favorite lyric: You think you’ve got it / Oh, you think you’ve got it / But got it just don’t get it / ‘Til there’s nothing at all
8. “Die Young,” Sylvan Esso
The primary members: Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn
Be sure to check out: The taut opening percussion like a bouncing rubber bell; the nasal, stirring synths that underlie the smooth vocals of the chorus; the simultaneously sombre and surprising sentiment of the chorus: I was gonna die young / Now I gotta wait for you, hun
Favorite lyric: I was a firecracker, baby, with something to prove / Now I gotta contend with the living blues / I could’ve missed it, and never knew / Chain reaction but you’re holding the fuse
To hear our take on the duo, listen here.
To enjoy these songs and others on our Favorite Duos playlist, here you go.
Please let us know your favorite music duo tracks in the comments section below.
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