100 Greatest Songs of the 00’s #78 Chromeo – Fancy Footwork

Released: 2005

If one thing’s for certain, it’s that as time moves on, so does taste. There was an – admittedly brief – period in which having your music compared to the dionysan Philly soul of Daryl Hall and John Oates might well have held up anyone’s career. As the 90’s died guilty pleasures nights took off in tandem though and it appeared that if you didn’t own a copy of Bruce Willis’ The Return of Bruno you were barred from signing up for a MySpace page.

In Canada it’s questionable whether the Last Boy Scout ever really went out of style, giving Montrealers David “Dave 1” Macklovitch and Patrick “P-Thugg” Gemayel a more relaxed environment in which to hone their craft. This came despite their mixed cultural backgrounds – the pair once described themselves as “only successful Arab/Jew partnership since the dawn of human culture” – but in 2004 after the Rockwell soundalike Needy Girl became a worldwide club hit, it was clear that no amount of snobbery was going to keep them down.

Released the following year and from the album of the same name, Fancy Footwork used an irresistibly D-Train funk riff and chopped up vocals, the hammering kick drum that squared them an invitation to anyone who hadn’t to get their asses on the dancefloor. The whole thing was a stylish homage to an era before dance music consciously separated itself from pop, and more proof that sooner or later, you’re going to have to admit that Out of Touch is a classic for the ages.