Rock & Roll Report Card

  • Arts

A 84%

Tegan and Sara
The Con

Vapour

You’d think by the time you reach your mid- to late-twenties the teenage angst would subside but Tegan and Sara prove all that darkness doesn’t pass, it just takes on new shapes and sounds.

With their new album The Con, the twins channel self-reflective lyrics, often looking back at their teenage years (“Nineteen,” “Like O, like h” and “Are You Ten Years Ago”), and twist them into impossibly catchy indie new wave tunes ranging from anxious to whimsical.

Growing out of the folk rock duo they once were, Tegan and Sara have increasingly reached out to the ’80s pop waves that layers of synthesizers and keyboards offer while remaining authentic and ragged-sounding with a strong base of acoustic and electric guitars.

While 2002’s If It Was You kept the ’80s influences to a minimum, 2004’s So Jealous exploded with experimental sounds. However, where So Jealous lags The Con picks up.

Opening the album with Sara’s “I Was Married” is a bold move as the rest of the album deals more with love breaking down. Stylistically the song is endearing but it’s also an unusual mash of call-and-answer lyrics and staggered guitar, piano and synths.

The title track is a perfect blend of impressive drumming, driving guitar, buzzing keyboards and Tegan’s scratchy voice that doesn’t compromise content for catchiness.

However, Tegan’s penchant for one-line hooks is ever present in the punk pop “Hop A Plane” that recalls too closely efforts from past albums. But in the sea of new wave indie that is The Con, the straightforward rock chords are a welcome two minutes.

Tegan and Sara get back to their early days’ process of recording demos and choosing to lay percussive tracks last instead of recording a drummer first and having to play along. The process adds to the album’s seamless ability to pull off odd arrangements because the drums bend to the songs’ whims and compliment their idiosyncrasies.

The dichotomy of their writing and arranging styles is still present, but this album gives each sister room to grow.

Sara coins clear, single-worthy lines on the pleading “Back In Your Head” and Tegan wanders into her own quirky realms in her own right for the track “Are You Ten Years Ago,” which uses vocals from her demo and a live drummer-—emulating drum machine and Genesis-esque beats.

Although their music has evolved, the lyrics of The Con rival the anxiety of Tegan

and Sara’s earlier work but short song times and thick, expressive arrangements keep listeners afloat.

—Adèle Barclay

B+ 78%

Junior Senior
Hey Hey My My Yo Yo

Crunchy Frog

Junior Senior’s second full-length album, originally released to an earthquaking reception in Japan in 2005, has finally made it to Canada, though tremors in the form of the album’s danciest hits (“Can I Get Get Get” and “Take My Time”) washed up on North American shores long before the album legally dropped.

The Danish duo’s follow up to 2003’s D-D-Don’t Don’t Stop the Beat takes listeners along in its virtual time-travelling machine, making several stops along the way; in a cushy Motown studio with girl-group The Velvelettes for “We R the Handclaps”; mid-1970s in Georgia to pickup the bee-hived ladies behind the B-52s and in new wave Portland to team up with a whole other kind of girl-group, Le Tigre.

Combined with Junior Senior’s love of ’80s-era synths and primitive, upbeat rap in the style of early ’90s hip-hop acts, Hey Hey My My Yo Yo is an indiscriminate love affair with music, regardless of the genre or the decade.

The album’s tour takes off with the call-and-answer rap jingle “Hip Hop a Lula,” successfully poking fun at serious hip hop conventions by meeting them with wonky twists on standards like breakdowns and rhymes—even going as far as criticizing that holiest of hip hop conventions—the booty shake: “We’ve been so tired of the booty shake / So please do something new cause you keep us awake.” “No No No’s” presents a dizzyingly fun angle on commitment phobia, with lyrics promising “I won’t fall in love” as they bounce between tamborines on this sunny surfer tune.

The standout track on the album is the disco-influenced “We R The Handclaps.” With vocals in the vein of the Jackson Five and lyrics as convincingly sweet as nine year-old Michael’s smile (“I’m so in love with the music/Never wanna go home”), the song has a cheap champagne feeling of sugary giggliness.

Though North American beat-enthusiasts may have already danced out their favourite pair of high-tops to the tune of Junior Senior’s bubblegum pop, the lesser-known songs on Hey Hey My My Yo Yo keep the party going and make the album worth picking up.

—Meghan Sheffield

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