Review: Tegan and Sara - Heartthrob

Canadian indie-pop duo Tegan and Sara once relied heavily on elements of folk, but the group now more closely resembles Kesha than Ani DiFranco. That’s not to say the progression is unexpected.

2007’s characteristically sad, elaborately structured, and predominantly acoustic-based The Con introduced listeners to electronic programming, trip hop drum beats, and manipulated vocals with “Are You Ten Years Ago,” an initially jarring song, but one that made sense given the downbeat nature of the album. Following the straightforward indie-pop stylings of the duo’s penultimate album, 2009’s Sainthood, Tegan and Sara collaborated with multiple electronica artists. Tiesto’s synth-laden “Feel it in My Bones” and Morgan Page’s unfortunate gym anthem “Body Work” saw the twins experimenting with autotune -- the recording device that replaces natural vocal tones with pitch-corrected, often mechanical effects -- and hooks that would surely be more apt to please nightclub attendees than emotionally fragile young adults.

If not for these isolated deviations, the musical direction explored on Hearththrob, the band’s seventh full-length album and first since its members turned 30, wouldn’t make the slightest bit of sense. But perhaps the shift may also be attributed to the three-and-a-half year gap between it and Sainthood, where the only glimpses into Tegan and Sara’s evolving musical preferences were a few scattered tracks on which they were merely featured guests.

Heartthrob is an album’s worth of deviations, or at least it would have been had it followed The Con. There are very few guitars, most of which are relegated to the background, and a notably polished sheen is applied to most of the vocals. Where producers Greg Kurstin and Justin Meldal-Johnsen succeeded in pronouncing the band’s infectious hooks, they failed in retaining much of Tegan and Sara’s authenticity. Sara’s desperate pleas to a former lover in “How Come You Don’t Want Me” would certainly ring truer if they weren’t masked by a distorting layer of autotune. The song is an otherwise terrific exercise in soul baring, with deeply personal lyrics and vocals that resonate with a sense of emotional fatigue, but these attributes are to a degree buried underneath the hollow production.

When the songwriting itself matches this hollow production, however, the music falls flat. Lead single “Closer” shoehorns questionable internal rhymes in its attempt to evoke 80s pop nostalgia: “Here comes the heat before we meet… Here comes the spark before the dark.” “Shock to Your System,” meanwhile, ends the album on an uneventful note, with some quirky keyboard hooks and bland, repetitive lyrics.

There are many places among these 10 tracks where the production and songwriting are compatible. “Drove Me Wild” is a sweet, sentimental pop song that opens with the lines, “When I think of you I think of your skin, golden brown from the sun. Your arms outstretched, your hair cut shorter than it’d been, but still blowing in the wind.” The vocal reverb here is subtle, even charming, much like the lyrical content itself.

Photo by Lindsey Byrnes.

Tegan and Sara typically write simple songs about love and longing, which tends to work when the songs are sincere rather than illustrative of contemporary pop conventions. “Now I’m All Messed Up” is standard breakup fare, but the curious inclusion of lines, for example, where Sara wonders where a former girlfriend is “leaving her makeup,” exemplifies the personal qualities of the lyrics. “Go if you want. I can’t stop you,” repeats Sara at the song's climax, while Tegan pleads in the background, “Please stay.” It’s an effective dual-vocalist approach that would have been a welcome addition had there been more of it.

"Love They Say," the sole track featuring any acoustic instrumentation, is a well-sequenced return to form, and live drums further establish the song's classic Tegan and Sara feel. It is, however, the only song on Heartthrob reminiscent of the band's past work.

Heartthrob is an acceptable pop album – an exceptional one, perhaps, given the vapidity of most of today's Top 40 charts -- but one that strays from many of Tegan and Sara's unique characteristics. There is heart to it, for sure, and Tegan and Sara's voices are still very endearing, but questionable production and songwriting decisions prevent Heartthrob from standing alongside their best work.

6/10