Tegan and Sara: Heartthrob
Details
Genre: Indie pop, Indie rock, SynthpopPros:
'80's pop power, charming melodies, breezy synthpop production sounds good on their new brandCons:
Hardly any major gripes - except there's more pop than rock on boardRock duo expands their pop horizons on 7th wonder
Rock duo expands their pop horizons on 7th wonder
Canadian indie rock band Tegan and Sara might have needed to explain their sudden shift towards indie pop on their seventh disc, but the stuff’s so catchy and deliciously refreshing – why even bother? The Bird and the Bee’s Greg Kurstin is mostly responsible for the cool change, even if eighty percent of the songs were entirely composed by the duo. Song after song, the sister combo of Tegan and Sara Quinn, featuring arctic vocals channeling early Madonna, hammers away these deceptively contagious tracks as if Carly Rae Jepsen were their pharmacist. “Closer” is decorated with a bubblegum wrap of Eighties pop magnificence – something like Buggles’ “Radio Killed the Radio Star,” but with a pinch of Katy Perry. As the chorus blasts away, it’s obvious why the song opens the ten-track set. But as the album parades on, it hardly exposes a dry track. The synth blazes of “Drive Me Wild” mimics the splendor of The Cars and the Go-Go’s,’ while the prom drama occurring on “How Come You Don’t Want Me” and “I Couldn’t Be Your Friend” exposes their willingness to make today’s pop feel authentic again. The album’s most mesmeric ballad, “I Was a Fool” – while soaked in an OneRepublicly piano – gives the band the breather they need to slow things down.
Tegan and Sara have come a very long way from their folk and punk beginnings. But Heartthrob isn’t here to suggest that they’ve thrown all of those memories away. This is just another step on their ladder where they can exercise their compositions in the open space of pop life – even if it seems that they’re lost in an exotic world of dreamy Cyndi Lauper synthpop.