Review: ‘D-D-Don’t Stop The Beat’ by Junior Senior (CD, 2003)

Today’s Pop Rescue review is the 2003 debut album D-D-Don’t Stop The Beat by Danish duo Junior Senior. Is this album a non-Stop bag of hits, or is it full of false starts? Read on…

Junior Senior - D-D-Don't Don't Stop The Beat (2003) album — Junior Senior – D-D-Don’t Don’t Stop The Beat (2003) album.

This 11 track CD opens with the excitement and cheers of an audience as a synth and beat drop in in the intro of Go Junior, Go Senior. Here, the duo take the mic, offering to take you into outer space and give you a heart attack. An electric guitar arrives for the chorus, helping to give it some energy as the synths bounce rapidly along behind. The track has a sort of demo feeling meets Muppets value, and the vocals are semi-chanting here. As it grows, the track becomes quite catchy.

Then we’re on to second single Rhythm Bandits, which takes us on some kind of 1950’s Beach Boys – early 1980’s audio ride (emphasised by the video). However, aside from the chorus which sounds really nice with the harmonies and fuller sound, the verses sound quite lacking in substance. The track is nice enough, and perhaps that’s reflected in its peak of #22 in the UK singles chart, and is to-date, their final charting single.

Next is the debut hit Move Your Feet, which scored the duo a #3 UK hit. It is instantly recognisable, and its success is perhaps aided by the fantastic 8-bit styled music video, and the song turns up on both Wii and Playstation games. This track is catchy, well-paced, interesting with all the samples, and the structure flows really well. This is what you’re here for.

A flurry of snare drums and growling guitars take us into Chicks And Dicks. The vocals and music here makes this sound like some sort of rock ‘n’ roll hit from the 1950s. It has a strong surging teenage hormone lyric, with ‘give me girrrrrlllsss’ sung repeatedly through it. It sounds raucous and dated.

Shake Your Coconuts is next. This was the third and final single from this album, but it did not chart in the UK. The track is taken from the soundtrack of the 2003 Brendan Fraser, Jenna Elfman and Steve Martin film Looney Tunes: Back In Action (yeah, me neither), which features in the music video. Again, there’s an element of shouty vocals, loose guitars, but nice vocal harmonies from the backing singers.

Then it’s Boy Meets Girl, which returns us to some 1960’s Rolling Stones-esque sound, with lead and backing vocals over a simple drum beat and electric guitar. Whilst this track might be more fuller than some of those we’ve heard in this album so far, and is relatively catchy, it doesn’t fit with the singles – it’s more rock.

C’mon follows that, giving us a sort of Run DMC sound on top of some kind of 50’s rock ‘n’ roll sound. It results in a track that is strangely a foot-tapper, simple and predictable, but also a bit novelty.

Seamlessly following that is Good Girl, Bad Boy, which gives us essentially the same sound, although the backing vocals are really nice in their ‘wow!’ exclamations. The guitar-led chorus works well, but again harks back to at least one era in music history.

Shake Me Baby is next, and this takes a more 1970’s melodic feel to it. A nice bass line leads us through as the affected vocals hold a melody well as guitars and synth strings lead us through. It’s a nice change here in the album. Electric guitars do come along in the final push to roar all over the end of the track, giving it a loud and messy finish.

Then it’s percussion galore for penultimate track Dynamite. Guitars growl a nice riff as the duo give us a nice melody that is very reminiscent of 1950’s rock ‘n’ roll music. The track takes a turn with lots of bass drum and snare… leading straight into…

..final track White Trash. This track is loud and chaotic, with the bass drum and snare from the previous track’s end continuing throughout. Again, the backing vocalists here really give the track a boost. It’s almost punk. The track ends on a cheering crowd and teases a repeat of the opening track of the album.

Junior Senior’s lead single ‘Move Your Feet’ (2003).

Verdict

Over all, this album will be a surprise for those who bought into Junior Senior at the Move Your Feet point.

Firstly, this album bravely harks back to lots of musical eras and throws them all into a pot and gives it a damn good stir. However, the 1950’s rock ‘n’ roll, the 1980’s hip hop, the 00’s electronic dance music sounds and whatever some of the 1970’s sounds are, don’t come together naturally, and some tracks here end up sounding semi-comedic, or just jarring in this line-up.

There are some highlights in here, and that is undoubtedly led by the hit single Move Your Feet, which is a stroke of genius in its blend of sound and energy, and also the choice of music video too. It rightly was a hit. At its lowest points, Chicks And Dicks, C’mon, and Good Girl, Bad Boy scrape the barrel of sounding half-made or almost parody. They don’t work.

Ultimately, the UK audience didn’t give the album the same amount of love as their debut single, but if you’re a fan of many musical eras, then you might find some joy here, or you might just see the album as a cheap way to get your hands on the hit single.