Two Dancers is the second studio album

Studio album

A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...

 by British indie rock

Indie rock

Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...

 band Wild Beasts

Wild Beasts

Wild Beasts are an indie rock band from Kendal in Cumbria. They released their first single, "Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants", on Bad Sneakers Records in November 2006, and subsequently signed to Domino Records. They have released three acclaimed albums, Limbo, Panto in 2008, Two Dancers in...

. It was released on 3 August 2009 in the UK on Domino Records, with a US release on 8 September. The track "Hooting and Howling" was released as the album's first single on 20 July.
Two Dancers was very well received by critics.

Reception

Aggregating website Metacritic

Metacritic

Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

 reports a "universal acclaim" rating of 83% from notable critics. Pitchfork Media

Pitchfork Media

Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...

 said, "Wild Beasts certainly aren't the first rock band to stand up society's dregs and outcasts, but few others immortalize them on such a wondrous, mythic scale." Drowned in Sound

Drowned in Sound

DrownedinSound.com or DiS is a UK based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway . The site is an editorially independent music website.-History:...

 stated, "Two Dancers, then, doesn't so much follow up their debut as announce Wild Beasts as one of our genuinely special bands, one that can compete—in terms of both musical and lyrical ingenuity as well as sheer pop nous—with any US act you've seen talked up in the music press this year."

In 2010, Two Dancers was nominated for the Mercury Prize

Mercury Prize

The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize and currently known as the Barclaycard Mercury Prize for sponsorship reasons, is an annual music prize awarded for the best album from the United Kingdom and Ireland. It was established by the British Phonographic Industry and British...

, which was subsequently won by the xx

The xx

The xx are an English indie pop band, formed in London in 2005. The band's members met while studying at Elliott School, the same school that produced Hot Chip, Burial and Four Tet. They became a trio when their second guitarist and keyboardist, Baria Qureshi, departed in late 2009. In September...

.

Accolades

Publication	Country	Accolade	Year	Rank
Drowned in Sound Drowned in Sound DrownedinSound.com or DiS is a UK based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway . The site is an editorially independent music website.-History:...	UK	Top 50 Albums of 2009	2009	#8
The Fly The Fly (magazine) The Fly is a free music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom. The magazine is published by the HMV owned MAMA Group.The magazine started as a listings leaflet in Camden, north London, for the Barfly music venue on Chalk Farm Road...	UK	Best Albums of 2009	2009	#1
The Guardian The Guardian The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...	UK	Top albums of 2009	2009	#3
NME NME The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...	UK	Albums of the Year	2009	#4
Pitchfork Media Pitchfork Media Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...	USA	The Top 50 Albums of 2009	2009	#22
Q	UK	50 best albums of 2009	2009	#41
The Sunday Times The Sunday Times The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...	UK	The top 100 albums of 2009	2009	#5
NME NME The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...	UK	Best Albums of the Decade	2009	#42

Track listing

1. "The Fun Powder Plot" – 5:35
2. "Hooting & Howling" – 4:35
3. "All the King's Men" – 3:59
4. "When I'm Sleepy" – 2:09
5. "We Still Got the Taste Dancin' on Our Tongues" – 4:35
6. "Two Dancers (i)" – 4:06
7. "Two Dancers (ii)" – 2:37
8. "This Is Our Lot" – 4:32
9. "Underbelly" – 1:54
10. "Empty Nest" – 3:24
11. "Through the Iron Gate" (iTunes bonus track) – 5:37

Personnel

• Hayden Thorpe - lead vocals (tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11), backing vocals, guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, production
• Tom Fleming - lead vocals (tracks 3, 6, 7, 10), backing vocals, bass guitar, keyboards, guitar, production
• Ben Little - lead guitar, production
• Chris Talbot - drums, backing vocals, production
• Richard Formby - production, engineering
• David Pye - engineering
• Lexxx - mixing
• Russell Fawcus - assistance