A FEW YEARS AGO, indie-rock duo Tegan and Sara finally gained the attention of the mainstream by walking with a ghost. Now, with the sisters’ latest album, “Sainthood,” the twins are kind of doing the same thing — visiting the haunting memories of an old relationship.
But if you’re looking for an acoustic rock-based sound, you’ll find that it’s vanished in the blink of an eye.
This album is the most upbeat of the sisters’ career: They rip through 13 tracks in a little more than 37 minutes, and there’s a plethora of electronica and punk influences that keep the pace pretty snappy. In fact, no song goes past three and a half minutes, and the ones that come close — such as “The Cure” and first single “Hell” — actually seem strange because the others are such brief bouts of melancholic energy.
And for the most part, the songs wallow in the sisters’ sadness: Just as a press release describes, the album is “inspired by emotional longing and the quiet actions we hope may be noticed by the objects of our affection. … We practice our sainthood in the hope that we will be rewarded with adoration. As we are driven to become anything for someone else, we sometimes become martyrs for our cause.” Additionally, the album’s themes are supposedly inspired by the lyrics of the song “Came So Far for Beauty” by Leonard Cohen, which discuss how “the rumors of my virtue / They moved her not at all.”
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Yes, it’s all pretty Debbie Downer-esque. But Tegan and Sara expertly balance their lyrics about tracking down lovers, being reduced to immaturity and shedding endless streaks of tears with happily bouncy beats that, while completely at odds with the subject matter at hand, are so intrinsically catchy that they’re hard to tune out. And although each sister normally writes solo — “Paperback Head,” the album’s 10th track, is the first song they’ve ever created together — the album’s style stays fluid and consistent throughout.
Share this articleShareFrom opener “Arrow,” which starts with a jauntily danceable beat but includes insistent lines from Sara that ponder whether her love would “cling and wage an intimate fight for me” or “tell me tough-love style,” to “Hell,” in which Tegan flirts with a Ramones-like punk structure and persists in claiming, “I know you feel it too / These words get overused / When we get up, and over it, and over them,” you can definitely tell these are not two happy women. Instead, they’re all about longing, sorrow and wondering what went wrong in their quests for love: Was it moving too fast (as Tegan wonders in “Don’t Rush”), losing focus on the important things (as Sara laments in “On Directing”) or getting too caught up in the “wild fires” (as they both describe in “Paperback Head”)?
There are few lyrical answers on “Sainthood,” but thankfully lots of musical experimentation on behalf of the twins, who venture further into pop territory on most of the album. For example, although “Hell” sags under its prototypical beat, the list of complaints on “Northshore” — in which Tegan commands her lover “Don’t cringe / Don’t clich / Don’t look / Don’t flich / Don’t leave me” — is well-complemented by the punchy, early pogo-punk instrumentation. And “Alligator Tears” is a perfect nod to the ’80s, reminiscent of Cyndi Lauper with its use of layered synths and Sara’s lyrics about her never-ending weeping.
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Sure, it can sound a little melodramatic, but it’s the duo’s unabashed emotions — especially on later tracks “Sentimental Tune,” which benefits both from rapid wordplay (such as Sarah’s proclamation “don’t worry, I’m ready for a fight”) and strong strings, and closer “Someday,” in which Tegan questions, “I don’t want to know what you do without me / I don’t want to know what I’ll be without you”) — keep the album afloat.
They’re not necessarily saints, but “Sainthood” is a good example of what Tegan and Sara can do when they let go of the past and give up the “Ghost.”
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Written by Express contributor Roxana Hadadi
Photo by Pamela Littky
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