The 5 Best Duets To Ever Come Out Of Alternative Rock

Alternative rock seems like the last place you'd expect to find a lot of duets. The tendency of duets to become saccharine and sentimental doesn't quite line up with the genre's stereotypically ironic and cynical worldview. On the other hand, some of the best alternative bands of all times have utilized multiple singers as part of their core lineup, with some like Sonic Youth and Broken Social Scene becoming partially defined by their multiple-voice approach. On top of that, even alt acts considered insular have brought in outside voices on occasion, which has sometimes led to incredible results.

Between multiple-vocalist bands like the Pixies and the Decemberists and single-singer acts like David Byrne, Weezer, and Evanescence that featured alt rock guests, alternative rock has produced some notable and even timeless duets. If there's one thing to be said about alternative rock, it's the genre's hunger to try new styles and sounds, and the duets featured here certainly accomplish that task. All the songs featured here pushed the envelope for their performers and, in the process, created something greater than the sum of their parts. Read on to discover and learn something new about five of the best duets to ever come out of alternative rock.

When David Byrne and Annie Clark announced they were releasing an album together, a great many alternative fans began practically salivating. The pedigree of the two performers is almost unparalleled, with Byrne famously the frontman for the Talking Heads and Clark for St. Vincent — two icons of the genre representing two distinct generations, both with an art-rock sound to complement the other. The album, "Love This Giant," was released in 2012 and its lead single was "Who," which featured both Byrne and Clark on vocals, and is every bit as angular, odd, and alien as you'd expect from the combination of the two.

Like the rest of "Love This Giant," the song is heavy on brass instruments — an intentional choice of Clark's, and one that is not only a creative surprise to begin with, but even more so when the quirky brass parts reveal themselves. Everything else about the song is surprising as well, save for Clark's signature energetic guitar riffing and Byrne's usual, emphatic "Hoo hah!" inserts (think "And She Was" and "Road to Nowhere"). The groove to "Who" is funky and drops out often for added effect, most notably when Clark comes in with her vocally acrobatic hook, asking simply, "Who is an honest man?" The song is nothing like St. Vincent's other music, and only passingly similar to some of Byrne's, and yet by its end, the ping-ponging rhythms and existential musings of "Who" have proven it an instant classic.

In the later years of Weezer's career, the nerd-rock kings have collaborated often with a wide range of other artists, from Sara Bareilles to Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast, but early in their career, the band was far more solitary. Their first two albums, considered by many to comprise their golden age, were almost exclusively written and sung by frontman Rivers Cuomo. Yet even during this period, Cuomo put out a duet. Tucked away as a supporting song on the single for "Pinkerton" rager "The Good Life," "I Just Threw Out The Love Of My Dreams" is a duet between Cuomo and Rachel Haden, an indie darling best known for her time with Jimmy Eat World, Beck, and Todd Rundgren.

Musically, "I Just Threw Out The Love Of My Dreams" is as early Weezer as it gets. Cuomo's guitar parts are distorted and fill their measures with constant power chords instead of playing with varied rhythms, and Patrick Wilson's drums are as splashy and fun as ever. It's Haden's vocals that set the song apart from the usual Weezer fare, however, coming in a full octave higher than you'd expect and singing from a female perspective. When Cuomo eventually enters to harmonize in the final half-minute, his strained vocals contrast and compliment Haden's gossamer voice well, and their combined delivery of "I must be made of steel / For I just threw out the love of my dreams" hits a satisfying climax that Cuomo could not have alone.

Of all the duets to ever come out of alternative rock, Evanescence's "Bring Me to Life" is the one we can guarantee every single reader will have heard — likely many, many times. Despite his relatively minor role in the song, guest vocalist Paul McCoy manages to contribute some of its most memorable lines. His short, barked lyrics simultaneously help ground Amy Lee's soaring vocals and make them seem even more angelic by comparison.

Lee has revealed that "Bring Me to Life" was based on an abusive relationship she'd had, and the song's alternating somberness and rage befit its origins. Lee's lyrics beg again and again for a savior using poetry like "Bid my blood to run / Before I come undone / Save me from the nothing I've become." McCoy's vocals, on the other hand, are nothing but short and direct. While Lee belts out her pleas, McCoy's short contributions to the choruses consist of "Wake me up / I can't wake up / Save me," repeated again and again, and the contrast is so striking that Lee's message hits home exponentially harder.

In the third verse, McCoy's role expands to a more traditional call-and-response duet with Lee that ends with him trailing the line "There must be something more" off into a primal scream. When the song kicks back into the chorus, their paired vocals hit harder than ever before. Though Lee is a more-than-capable vocalist on her own, the addition of a complementary duetting role helped make "Bring Me to Life" the band's most successful single to date.

When it comes to alternative bands with multiple singers, no one does it quite like the Pixies. Frontman Black Francis is well-known for his unique vocals, which alternate between lackadaisical speak-singing and furious screeching, while bass player and second vocalist Kim Deal's vocals are more traditional, on-key, and immediately pleasant. The voices themselves play off each other well, but so does the way they are used. The Pixies are pioneers of the loud-quiet-loud dynamic, and are similarly playful with their melodies. Case in point: "I Bleed," an innovative duet and one of the many classic tracks from the band's 1989 masterpiece "Doolittle," an album that helped the band take over college radio in the late '80s.

Both Francis and Deal sing together throughout pretty much the entirety of "I Bleed," though their singing couldn't be any more different. During the verses and choruses, Francis whimsically speaks his lines while Deal actually sings them, and she does so through a haunting, high-pitched drone. The difference between the two is almost unsettling, which given the song's existential and morbid lyrics, may have been the band's intention. Most interestingly, the two swap roles for the bridge, with Deal singing low and matter-of-factly while Francis screams like he was on fire. By the end of the song, both singers are singing low and echoing each other's "I bleed" lines. Though every Pixies song is a unique pearl, the creatively dynamic duet on "I Bleed" makes it remarkable, even when compared to its aberrant peers.

There may not be a more dynamic and dramatic use of the duet in history than on the Decemberists' "The Mariner's Revenge Song," and there certainly aren't any that feature more characters explaining their elaborate revenge plots while sitting in the belly of a whale. The song stars usual frontman Colin Meloy, one of the best folk rock voices you'll hear, and adds a role voiced by then-bandmate Petra Haden (and coincidentally, the sister of Rachel, who duetted on "I Just Threw Out The Love Of My Dreams"). Meloy's character, the Mariner, tells his tale of revenge and murder while Haden voices his dead mother, rasping and rattling a ghostly cry to be avenged.

Meloy's singing is as chipper and articulate as ever, while Haden's is whispered, breathy, and mournful, reflecting her tragic end at the hands of the Mariner's enemy (and her former lover). The contrast helps cast Meloy more accurately in the role of a younger man, which in turn contrasts his eventual violence and cruelty (however justified). The Decemberists have a number of long, narrative tracks, but none are like "The Mariner's Revenge Song" because none capture as much character and drama with so little. It's one thing for a character to sing about the dead mother they're out to avenge. It's something else to hear her eerie voice implore the character to bury his enemy until he wakes up "Clawing at the ceiling of his grave." "The Mariner's Revenge Song" is an all-time duet in the world of alternative rock.