Laptop- Let Yourself Go

Probably the most over-the-top entry on this list, and that is saying something. This isn’t strictly a duet either, since only one of the involved parties actually sings, but the spoken interplay that comes before each verse is so pitch-perfect and hilarious that I had to include it. “I just wanted to tell you how I feel about some stuff,” Jesse mutters just before he starts over-emoting like a syrupy ’80s heartthrob, about giving in to passion and all that. Jenny, meanwhile, remains resolutely dispassionate, like she’s unaware or uninterested that she happens to be in a pop song; she’s just trying to have a normal conversation (albeit a relationship-ending one) and he’s trying her patience with all this oblivious singing. It’s the “Nothing Better” melodrama writ even larger, and more self-aware. Numerous brilliant ironic and meta-referential touches—like when Jenny’s voice becomes literally robotic in her emotionless exasperation: “You’re really not taking this in.” Cracks me up.

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The Jazz Passengers featuring Elvis Costello and Deborah Harry- Doncha Go ‘Way Mad

This time things end more happily. A fairly faithful rendition of an old Illinois Jacquet tune (also rended by the likes of Ella and Frankie, though not together), this is a lovely chance to hear two of new wave’s foremost attitudes coo so cooly they almost seem to be mocking their tougher younger personas. It’s also got to be the most amiable lover’s tiff imaginable, with lines like “well you understand that I feel upset”/”what do you say that we forgive and forget?” But really, who could hold a grudge with that deliciously slinky vibraphone softshoe in the background. It shouldn’t be much more than a novelty, but playfully inflected, winking performances from both all involved make it nearly irresistible. Dig, for instance how El blandishes “Deborah darling” in his final round of peace entreaties over the fade-out.

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Ute Lemper with Neil Hannon- Split

It shouldn’t surprise many to hear the Divine Comedy frontman and the latter-day cabaret diva turn in a three-minute pocket-opera, replete with delectably caustic and pithy repartee worthy of Woody Allen at his most sarcastic: “I was there for you”/”You were there for me…and him…and half of the western world it seems.” It gets a little hard to follow the convoluted shared past they so vindictively thrust in each other’s faces here, especially when they launch into the unison chorus that suggests the betrayals and forgivenesses took place (repeatedly) on both sides. Essentially, this is another elegy to a dead-on-its-feet relationship, whose dissolution is imminent, apparently, because on reflection there isn’t much holding it together after all. That notwithstanding, they both still sound plenty damn passionate about it.

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