Even though Junior Senior’s sophomore album, “Hey Hey My My Yo Yo” has already been available in Japan and Denmark for two years now, it could’ve been recorded yesterday and American audiences would not have known the difference. It’s hard to say what caused the delay in release when one considers the relative success of this band both critically and commercially everywhere else. Perhaps it took the recent popularity of dub bands like LCD Soundsystem, Justice and CSS to convince distributors that this album would do well in the U.S.
Right from the start, “Hey Hey My My Yo Yo” is a toe-tapper of a disco-rock album, and almost seems specifically engineered to accompany peppy scenes in TV shows (like Ugly Betty, which has featured the song “Can I Get Get Get” from this album) and movies. If there is any such thing as the “Danny Elfman Book of Marketable Jingles”, then these guys definitely took a page from it. You will almost certainly hear one or more of these songs in a car commercial for Mini Cooper or Toyota Prius.
Senior no! You’re just going to be hungry half an hour later anyway!
Now I’m not nor have I ever been a big fan of house and electronic music, but I know a danceable tune when I hear one, and the first disc in this double album has no short supply of them. “Itch You Can’t Scratch” in particular seems tailor-made for hipster dance clubs and indie-rock radio. The unfortunate thing is that halfway through the album, the buzz is already wearing off and the comedown sets in.
The second half of the album makes me wonder why “Hey Hey My My Yo Yo” comes with two discs. I would have had no problem whatsoever paring this track list down to 10 good, upbeat songs, rather than the grand total of 18 that are included. While I appreciate the attempt at experimentation, I feel as I always have that if it isn’t broken musically, don’t fix it. If you can name a band that isn’t a world class A-lister that is able to change styles on a dime, I’d love to hear it. Junior Senior is neither world class nor A-list, and as such, their dalliances into garage rock, rap and punk are laughable at best.
Fans of disco and house who want a little more human interaction and a few catchy guitar riffs reminiscent of Television’s “Marquee Moon” will love this album. It isn’t very edgy, and it’s a little too bubblegum for even the most eclectic indie-rock fan, but it does come with a swell poster! I wouldn’t bump it in my car on the way to work, but I wouldn’t be at all ashamed to shake my ass to one or two songs at a house party.
