Dave's Tegan and Sara Review

Tegan and Sara seem to fill a void for people. Every album they release seems to be something that a certain group of people is craving at the time. For me Sainthood is filling the Riot GRRRL of the 90’s , it’s just evolved it for my tastes. I was fan of the L7s and Bikini Kills, the Eric’s Trips (Julie Doiron singing), 7 Year Bitch songs from the 90s – and this sounds like it was the adopted child of those bands – redheaded and all.

Upon first list Sainthood seems to be honouring the GRRRL era in a very appropriate way. Catchy, hooky, and full of sing-a-long songs that get stuck in your head for days at a time – that’s what really hooked me into this album, but it’s not what kept me around. Once I had let the album play top to bottom, I couldn’t believe it was over. Each song is short and sweet and really, really concise. It’s like original pop song kind of writing, where anything longer that 3 mins feels like an epic journey for Tegan and Sara – and eventually for listeners. It’s refreshing considering some of the recent releases that have enjoyed success with 4+ minutes of nonsense - this is a lean record, I like it.

It maybe trim, however, for me it all sounds very alike. It’s not that every song sounds like every other song, it’s the pace of the album feels the same top to bottom. With the exception of “Night Watch” and “Northshore” every song seems to be painting different pictures with the same pallet. Tegan and Sara don’t seem to be pushing themselves on the production side of things –focused on lyrics, they are able to sing a story with the best of the best in this country, but their music writing feels stagnant and stuck.

I can’t help but think that this album was released near the end of 2009. That it was able to survive the whole year, and still be considered one of the 10 best Canadian albums of the year and be short listed for Polaris Prize 2010 is really a testament to Tegan and Sara’s presence as a force within the industry - as they sing on “Alligator” “relentless yes it’s true”.

DAVE’S KEY TRACKS: ‘The Ocean’; ‘Alligator’; ‘Don’t Rush’; ‘On Directing’