Album of the Week: Tegan and Sara’s Sainthood simmers

Tegan and Sara: Sainthood
Tegan and Sara have a great album in them, but Sainthood isn’t it. It’s close on several fronts, especially when it plays to the Calgary twins’ strengths, their teenage-girl harmonies and affinity for strong pop hooks, like on lead single “Hell” and “On Directing” (with its cutie-pie “go steady with me” chorus). But it’s also a frustrating record, as the Quin sisters seem caught between going deeper and darker with their sound, as on “Paperback Head” or “Night Watch,” or reaching for the mainstream, like the slick, new-wave-y “Alligator.” Producer Chris Walla, of Death Cab for Cutie fame, does them no favours by placing Tegan and Sara too often in the mediocre middle. Title suggestion for next record: Go for it. B

Tegan and Sara: Hell (from Stereogum)
from the album Sainthood
MP3 • • MYSPACE • OFFICIAL SITE


And for more new sounds, make sure to subscribe to my latest podcast, JeffMix2009.10.25 (also on iTunes), featuring music from Atlas Sound, Laura Veirs, Pennywise, and The Middle East, among others.