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Rating: Different Twins
Two monozygotic twin sisters, born in Canada, in Calgary, on September 19, 1980, identical in everything: the face, the voice, the smile, the short, straight-cut hair, and that feeling that the other person is a part of you, a piece of you, like your arm, your eye, maybe even more. At some point, they get the idea to record albums (oh yes, it would be interesting to know: who came up with the idea first? Or did they think of it simultaneously?...), and each of them writes lyrics, music, sings, and plays guitar, piano, and keyboards, and then together they forge this musical material in a rare harmony symbiosis, so the question remains and intrigues with every new album, every song: when we listen to them, where is (who is, how much of) Tegan Quin and where is (who is, how much of) Sara Quin?
Finding the answer to this question, in reality, doesn't seem difficult. Just take a tour through the many pages about them found on the Internet, to discover that Sara, of the two, is the more talkative one, more willing to share, but also the one who prefers more complex structures when composing, with more introspective, elaborate, and multi-meaning texts. The more melodic one. Tegan is more introverted; musically, however, she lets her emotions surface by expressing them with more contagious and engaging punk rock rhythms, her lyrics are more direct and immediate. That said, there remains, however, the curiosity not to stop at what we can learn about them and their music from indirect sources, the desire to form a precise and personal idea, to fix impressions.
"The Con" is the fifth studio album of Tegan and Sara, who appeared on the music scene in the late '90s with a style between folk and punk that linked them to other artists, like themselves, who took the stage at the Lilith Fair tour of Sarah McLachlan. In April 2000, a contract signed with Neil Young's Vapor Records allowed their debut album "This Business of Art" to catapult them immediately onto the main stage of Canadian folk rock, thanks also to the tour held that summer with Neil Young himself and the Pretenders.
Tegan and Sara rightly dislike labels applied to their music, wanting to be independent from any schematic classification, to explore new styles and musical territories with each new album. Of musical genres, the Quin sisters say they are nothing more than a passport, without which, as many seem to believe, the artist isn't free to freely transit from one place of music to another. However, it’s undeniable that with this new work they abandon the folk singer-songwriter style that characterized their beginnings, moving decisively between pop and indie rock. The record is produced by Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie. He played a decisive role in giving greater prominence to the electric guitar (played by Kaki King), which inserts itself between the acoustics of Tegan and Sara, and especially to Matt Sharp’s keyboards, very much in the Aqueduct style. The bass lines, entrusted not to one but two musicians: again Matt Sharp alternating with Hunter Burgan, are particularly effective and well set.
The fourteen tracks of "The Con" are short, all contained within three and a half minutes. In this way, the melodic lines are highlighted, the purity of the arrangements, the careful distribution of sounds, the always perfect, pleasantly sophisticated intertwining of Tegan and Sara’s voices.
The first, "I Was Married", lets us hear the exact amalgamation of the two voices, which start immediately, moments before the music. By the way: Tegan and Sara seem to want to disappoint those who want to understand who contributes more to the final result of the songs because the work is perfectly divided in half in both songwriting and singing. Sara writes and gives the main voice to seven tracks, the remaining seven are written and sung by Tegan, but the two voices always join in the backing vocals: it’s hard to imagine a more complete balance. We are only on the first track, and immediately the question arises: which is Tegan’s voice and which is Sara’s? Once more, the usual indirect sources help us dispel many doubts: Sara is the one with the higher voice, performing the higher parts. Tegan’s voice is warmer, between mezzo-soprano and contralto.
The second track, "Relief Next To Me", presents an interesting stylistic solution in the rhythm section: two tablatures are performed at the same time, one with sticks, the other with brushes. But it is with "Are You Ten Years Ago" that the album decisively takes off in the direction of those pop hooks introduced by Chris Walla: the singing flows agile and brilliant on a base characterized by the combination of traditional and electronic drums. When they say quality pop. Along the same lines, extremely captivating and pleasant to listen to, are tracks like "Back In Your Head", "Hop A Plane", "Nineteen" (with Phil Collins-style drums), and "Like O, Like H". There are also moments on this album where the atmosphere darkens, making room for introspection, for example in tracks like "Soil, Soil", or "Floorplan". It closes with "Call It Off", a deep and reflective track, yet serene at the same time.
Will the question (Tegan and Sara: identical twins and/or different in something?) find an answer? After all, it’s likely that even the ignition of these curiosities has supported the success that has immediately smiled upon the Canadian twins from the beginning. On the other hand, all this is not really important. The overall result of this "The Con", this indeed, is exceedingly pleasant. These tracks written with four hands genetically very similar yet, as we have seen, presenting characteristics that differentiate them at the same time, constitute not a collection of disparate compositions, disconnected from each other, but a homogeneous and coherent entity. A remarkable new tile in the musical mosaic that Tegan and Sara are composing.
Tegan and Sara, "The Con", Vapor/Sire, 2007
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
03 The Con (03:29)
I listened in,
Yes I'm guilty of this,
You should know this.
I broke down and wrote you back
Before you had a chance to.
Forget forgotten,
I am moving past this,
Giving notice.
I have to go,
Yes I know the feeling,
Know you're leaving.
Calm down, I'm calling you to say
I'm capsized,
Erring on the edge of safe.
Calm down, I'm calling back to say
I'm home now
and coming around,
I'm coming around.
Nobody likes to
But I really like to cry.
Nobody likes me,
Maybe if I cry.
Spelled out your name and list the reasons.
Faint of heart
Don't call me back.
I imagine you
And I was distant, not insistent.
I followed suit
And laid out on my back,
Imagine that.
A million hours left to think of you
And think of that.
Calm down, I'm calling you to say
I'm capsized,
Erring on the edge of safe.
Calm down, I'm calling back to say
I'm home now
and coming around,
I'm coming around.
Nobody likes to
But I really like to cry.
Nobody likes me,
Maybe if I cry.
Encircle me
I need to be taken down
Encircle me
I need to be taken down
Encircle me
I need to be taken down
Encircle me
I need to be taken down
Nobody likes to
But I really like to cry
Nobody likes me
Maybe if I cry
Nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody
Nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody
Encircle me
I need to be taken down
Encircle me
I need to be taken down
Encircle me
I need to be taken down
06 Back in Your Head (03:00)
Build a wall of books between us in our bed
Repeat
Repeat the words that I know we both said
Relax into the need
We get so comfortable
Remember when I was so strange and likeable
I just want back in your head
I just want back in your head
I'm not unfaithful but I'll stray
When I get a little scared
When I get a little scared
When I get a little
When I jerk away from holding hands with you
I know these habits hurt important parts of you
Remember when, how sweet and unexplainable
Nothing like this person, unlovable
I just want back in your head
I just want back in your head
I'm not unfaithful but I'll stray
When I get a little scared
When I get a little scared
When I get a little scared
When I get a little
Run run run
Run
Run run run
Run
I just want back in your head
I just want back in your head
I'm not unfaithful but I'll stray
I'm not unfaithful but I'll stray
I'm not unfaithful but I'll stray
I'm not unfaithful but I'll stray
07 Hop a Plane (01:49)
I took the train back
Back to where I came from
I took it all alone it´s been so long, I know
Imagine me there my heart asleep with no air
Begging "Ocean please, help me drown these memories"
All I need to hear is that you’re not mine, you’re not mine
I’m moving east there’s somewhere far away from
The sight of my hands the sight of me not moving
You can’t just hop a plane and come and visit me again
I claim it’s in my head and I regret offering
All I need to hear is that you’re not mine, you’re not mine
All I want to hear is that you’re not mine, you’re not mine
You take a second take a second, take a year, take a year
You took me out and took me in and told me all of this
And then you take a moment, take a moment, take a year, take a year
You help me out, I listen in, you taught me all of this and then
All I want to hear is that you’re not mine, you’re not mine
All I want to hear is that you’re not mine, you’re not mine
All I need to hear is that you’re not mine, you’re not mine
All I want to hear is that you’re not mine, you’re not mine
09 Burn Your Life Down (02:22)
Tell me that you know another way to get it done
It's not me or how I would be
But it's a different situation
A different situation
You lay awake in the night just staring at the ceiling above
Pulling pieces of it out is such a waste of time
You keep on fighting to remember that nothing is lost in the end
When you burn, burn, burn your life down
Get me to the door
Out of bed
On the track
I'm not sure
Starting over
It's a different situation, a different situation
You wake up in the night and refuse to be afraid of the now
Unfolding pieces of it faster, don't you waste your time
You've been planning to remember this, so nothing will be lost in the end
When you burn, burn, burn your life down
When you burn, burn, burn your life down
I drive around the block and I'm not looking to my right
I feel the glass against my cheek and I can't see you in the light
I break my heart around it, break my heart around it
I drive around the block and I'm not looking to my right
I feel the glass against my cheek and I can't see you in the light
I break my heart around this, break my heart around this pole
10 Nineteen (02:56)
I felt you in my legs
Before I ever met you,
And when I lay beside you
For the first time I told you
I feel you in my heart
And I don't even know you
And now we're saying bye, bye, bye
And now we're saying bye, bye, bye
I was nineteen
Call me...
I felt you in my life before I ever thought to
I need to lay down beside you and tell you
I feel you in my heart
And I don't even know you
And now we're saying bye, bye, bye
And now were saying bye, bye, bye
I was nineteen
Call me...
I was nineteen
Call me...
Flew home,
Back to where we met
Stayed inside
I was so upset
I cooked up a plan,
So good except
I was all alone
You were all I had
Love you
You were all mine
Love me
I was yours right
I was yours right
I was nineteen
Call me...
I was nineteen
Call me...
11 Floorplan (03:37)
I want to draw you a floorplan
Of my head and heart
I want to give directions, helpful hints.
What you'll be looking for
What you'll be looking for
I know I'll hold this loss in my heart forever
I know I'll hold, I'll hold
I know I'll hold this loss in my heart forever
I know I'll hold, I'll hold
All eyes are on me now
All eyes are on me now
I want your lungs to stop working without me
I think about writing you
I thought about calling you
What was I looking for
What am I looking for
I know I'll hold this pain in my heart forever
I know I'll hold, I'll hold
I know I'll hold this pain in my heart forever
I know I'll hold, I'll hold
All eyes are on you now
All eyes are on you now
I shouldn't go
But I can't really help it
When I feel this pressure
I shouldn't go
But I can't really help it
When I feel this pressure
All eyes are on me now
All eyes are on me now
All eyes are on me now
All eyes are on me now
All eyes are on me now
I shouldn't go
But I can't really help it
When I feel this pressure
I shouldn't go
But I can't really help it
When I feel this pressure
I shouldn't go when I feel this building
I shouldn't go when I feel this building
I shouldn't go but I can't really help it
When I feel this pressure
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