I reached out for your hands and you threw it all away

"You Gave Me Nothing," taken from British producer Mark Ronson's forthcoming album Record Collection, is, to paraphrase Popjustice, the best proper duet I've heard in months. Not that there's been much competition--if we're just talking about balanced duets, not featuring appearances, what else has there been, save Robyn and Snoop Dogg, since, say, spring?

05 You Gave Me Nothing (feat. Rose Elinor Dougall & Andrew Wyatt) by poppostergirl

The singers in question are Andrew Wyatt of Miike Snow and Rose Elinor Dougall, formerly of the Pipettes. Andrew's appearance on "You Gave Me Nothing," which might be more intuitively titled "You're Not My Baby," is certainly the most I've ever enjoyed his voice; listening to the Miike Snow album always felt more like an art appreciation exercise than an engaging musical experience, though the seemingly-still-unreleased remix of "The Rabbit" might be the exception to that rule. Maybe it's the added urgency of the gently unsettling dystopian music (yes, a gentle dystopia--the kind where our robotic overlords aren't killing people left and right in the streets but have passed futuristic Alien and Sedition Acts). Maybe it's balancing his voice with an equal amount of Rose, whose indie-beloved solo material I've ignored to date but who here comes across like the next great popstar.

Regardless, the two singers and Mark all bring out the best in each other. The cold fire of Mark's dark electro-meets-band composition, the dismissive anger of Andrew and Rose--how can there be such power in the final product when all parties involved resist the urge to scream and shout at each other? "You're Not My Baby" somehow still manages to radiate icy, ominous fury in the midst of its grown-up hooks. Free of kitsch or self-aware irony, let's hope it and its sheathed-knife electro passion set the template for Mark Ronson's upcoming work with Duran Duran.

"You're Not My Baby" is taken from Mark Ronson & the Business Intl's album Record Collection (which does feature vocals from Duran Duran's Simon Le Bon on the title track), out next week. You can preorder it here (physical).