With their latest single Dancing Partner, punk / pop duo Neil Fitzsimon and Bee Brogan catapult the listener back in time to an era celebrated for its awkward charm and reckless abandon. Like a gangly teenager flailing chaotically across the dance floor, Dancing Partner has all the underdog pop sensibility of The Ramones with the bite of Siouxsie and the Banshees. ‘No-one will get in my way’ sing the duo, as open hi-hats of sizzle atop a brutish beat and radiophonic guitars wail in the wings. The emotional sentiment of the punk movement is captured succinctly by the lyric ‘Hatred’s just another word for desire…’ conjuring imagery of the goth movement, which would emerge out of the anarchistic trend in the early 80s. Goths concealed the pimply discontent of punks with layers of makeup and romantic sophistication, trading politics for poetry. But nothing can hide the unrestrained angst and excitement of the punk generation. Any punk connoisseur will attest that Dancing Partner by Fitzsimon and Brogan is the genuine article, because the song doesn’t pretend to be something it is not.
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