Hey Hey My My Yo Yo
by Junior Senior

Album details

US: 14 August 2007 on Rykodisc
UK: IMPORT ONLY

The Danish dance-rock duo’s successor to their 2003 debut ‘D-D-D-Don’t Stop the Beat’ finally gets a U.S. release after first hitting European record store shelves in the summer of 2005. Peaches and members of The B-52’s and Le Tigre are among the guests. [Some versions of the US release come with the 7-track "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye" EP.]

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The critical consensus

Count Entertainment Weekly among those reviewers enjoying Junior Senior’s sophomore effort, noting, "Repeat listens will reveal some truly indelible melodies beneath those stylistic frills." Slant notes, "It speaks to band’s boundless creativity that the material never becomes redundant or veers into novelty or camp territory." Artist Direct says that despite the two-year delay, the new album still comes across as a step forward for the band: "On Hey Hey My My Yo Yo, the group refines their relentlessly cheerful aesthetic with songs that amplify the most ecstatic elements of dance pop, hip-hop, and rock ‘n roll to nearly absurd extremes." Pitchfork, too, finds HHMMYY "an improvement and distillation of the duo’s sound," while CokemachineGlow also calls album number two "sharper" than the debut, although suffering from a touch of "sameness." Stylus notes the lack of a strong single, but adds, "In every other way, however, Hey Hey tops its predecessor," while The Stranger says HHMMYY "doesn’t peak as high as the debut, but it’s more consistent overall."

Rolling Stone, however, determines that "Junior Senior’s track-building smarts and way with a hook add up to non-annoying bliss on a handful of tracks," implying that the remaing songs are, well, not so non-annoying. And Glide finds the music way, way too sugary to be enjoyable, adding that Junior Senior "make The Scissor Sisters sound like Christian Rock."

By the way, if Junior Senior’s sound isn’t your cup of tea, you may find someone else in your household who will like them. In The New Yorker, Sasha Frere-Jones writes, "I have exhaustingly reliable evidence that children love the band’s recordings."

Throughout Hey Hey My My Yo Yo, Junior Senior repeatedly thwart the impulse to perceive them as disposable or disco-era re-enactors, resisting the novelty label at every step.

- Rob Mitchum, Pitchfork

Review roundup

Tracklisting and media

1. Hello
2. Hip Hopallula
3. Can I Get Get Get
   
   
4. Take My Time
   
   
5. Itch You Can’t Skratch
6. We R the Handclaps
7. I Like Music (W.O.S.B.)
8. Ur a Girl
9. No No No’s
10. Dance, Chance, Romance
11. Happy Rap

Also on the web

• Official Artist Site
• Junior Senior @ MySpace