Whether intentional or not, the third album by French chart-topping duo The dø is effectively a renewal of “Sweet Dreams”-era Eurythmics. The synth bubble-‘n’-pulse and vocal lines nodding towards the choral and gospel inescapably evoke what Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart fashioned in the mid-Eighties. Shake Shook Shaken’s third track “Miracles (Back in Time)” suggests so much of Eurythmics’ “Here Comes the Rain Again” that it’s possible Dan Levy and the Finland-born but France-dwelling Olivia Merilahti are actually paying tribute to Eurythmics.
Shake Shook Shaken – with its bizarre sleeve image seemingly depicting Merilahti as a Guantanamo Bay detainee and Levy as her guard – represents a new direction for The dø. Previously, Merilahti and Levy merged the quirkiness of Björk with an agreeably wonky pop which was alternately anthemic and driving. Live, as on album, they performed as a full band. Now though, they’ve decided to become yet another synth-pop duo with the female half as the voice. It’s a crowded field, and one in which it takes an awful lot to stand out.
And with Shake Shook Shaken, The dø do not stand out. Beyond the ebb and flow of the Eurythmics' undertone, there are touches of The Knife’s edginess and Robyn’s high-definition dance-pop. It’s as if The dø have also decided to take Sweden on at its own game. While the less-uptempo “A Mess Like This” is attractively hymnal, most of the rest of the album offers a serviceable, toe-tapping, oft-anthemic, modern-yet-Eighties-inclined electropop which has been perfected to greater effect in northern Europe. For The dø and their French devotees this may be enough. Further afield, it's hard to see how Shake Shook Shaken could make an impact.
Overleaf: watch the video for "Despair, Hangover & Ecstasy" from Shake Shook Shaken
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