I’m not even going to try to pretend that I am some sort of casual “Yeah, I like that ‘Walking with A Ghost song’” kind of Tegan and Sara fan or an impartial stringer 
covering the events of yet another album release. I’ve been a junkie for T&S ever since I stumbled upon The Con via Chris Walla via Death Cab for Cutie about a year ago. After devouring the 2007 critical-darling and its feast of dark confessional lullabies and musings on the mythos of love, I needed more. I remember listening and thinking that I had never heard voices like that or been so deeply taken with music before, better yet, as my little cousin and Greek mini-me put it, “How do they know the inner workings of my emotional being?” Over the past year, I’ve worn-out the B-sides. I find myself regularly browsing YouTube for the latest concert footage meticulously documented by die-hards, and have been known to, you know, lurk the message boards on a lonely night. What?
The release of Sainthood (Vapor/Sire) on October 27th will be Tegan and Sara’s 6th full-length studio album produced once again by Chris Walla and Howard Redekopp. It’s the first time we’ve heard new music from the sisters in two years. It’s a very exciting week to say the least. Rest assured, PopWreckoning has got this covered for you from every angle. Let this review serve as a teaser leading up to our exclusive three-way interview with Tegan, PW contributor Dese’Rae Stage, and I. Oh, and did I mention an upcoming in-person with Sara as well as full concert coverage of the twins’ two sold out shows at New York’s historic Town Hall on Halloween weekend? Tegan’s a fan of PW. She said so when we spoke. We’re cool like that.
Without further ado, I give you my humble thoughts on Sainthood.
The album, inspired by Leonard Cohen’s wrist-cutting ode to unrequited love, “Came so Far for Beauty” plays with the notion of romantic idealism, devotion, and the risk inherent in loving another. In the words of Tegan and Sara themselves, “Inspired by emotional longing and the quiet actions we hope may be noticed by the objects of our affection, Sainthood is about obsession with romantic ideals. We practice our sainthood in the hope that we will be rewarded with adoration.” Throughout the album we learn that this act of loving according to the twins is analytical, fragile, neurotic, unforgiving, and is ultimately in pursuit of truth.
I will say at the outset that it’s a grower, but after two listens, you won’t be spinning anything else in your pods. Sainthood is different than anything Tegan and Sara have done in the past. There’s no “Call it Off” here. Some tracks push at breakneck speed while others hold back and are more complex and layered. It’s got a gruff exterior, but underneath, it’s classic Tegan and Sara. There’s even an exotic, slick samba-esque dance track, “Alligator” that’s all keys. It may be different than what we’ve heard in the past from the Canadian twins, but Sainthood is in my opinion, some of the most electrifying stuff the girls have ever done. You can feel them pushing themselves on this album, playing with and juxtaposing themes such as love, truth, idolatry, authenticity, and the imagined.
On the opener, “Arrow,” a sharp-shooting, synthy surge, Sara Quin, soul mate, sultan of cool, and the twin known for bringing us the more complicated musical arrangements and quirkier sound compared to Tegan’s hookier, hard-driving half, jumps into the ring, gloves on and asks, “Would you take a straight and narrow, critical look at me?” alongside buff guitar jabs and electronic punchiness. The girls took a different approach to the process as well, recording with a live band in the studio, the result yielding a fuller, more in-the-thick-of-it kind of fever. Sainthood also marks the first time in the twins’ lengthy career that they penned tracks together. While only one song, “Paperback Head,” ended up on the album, the fleshy thrill of experimentation is noticeable throughout. Their distinctive singing voices are even different on a lot of the tracks, and we find different stories and characters uncovered in the tonal and tempo changes to their signature tweets. On “Red Belt,” my favorite, a track Sara says was inspired by a David Mamet film of the same name, we’re introduced to a rich, golden, slow-to-boil tenor with an almost sci-fi trance to it, complete with a bell toll and lyrics that have you believing in fiction, “Slow down, you have a tendency to rush back into your past, slow down, you transfer all your weight and disappear…you kneel, to condition all the feelings that you feel.” On “Hell,” the album’s first single and tracks like “The Cure” and “Northshore,” Tegan toys with the best of post-punk intentions with an accelerated pace, lyrical rawness, and synthetic undertow.
The twins, who have never been shy musically, waxing sophisticated pop tracks for ten years now that fearlessly document the depths of their emotional experience and puzzling through their unique coming of age, continue to offer a stark reflection of themselves and the contours of their hardworking hearts on Sainthood. While the momentum of the album may be escalated compared to past T&S, the process shaken up a bit, the cuts more genre-fusing and risky, the lyrics more cryptic at points, the perspective tossed around, the surface a little steely, Sara’s still not afraid to ask, “Would you take a calm and tender, terminal kind of care? Would you wage an intimate fight for me?” and in this sense stays true to the vulnerability and romanticism that the girls have come to be known for. It’s truly rare to find artists as prolific as Tegan and Sara at such a young age, who have skillfully navigated the challenges of the music industry on their own terms while continuing to produce work that is relevant and that pushes their talent and ideas in new directions. Sainthood secures Tegan and Sara’s spot among the few.
Sainthood comes out tomorrow, October 27. Preview the album now, for FREE at www.myspace.com/teganandsara.
Tracklisting:
01. Arrow
02. Don’t Rush
03. Hell
04. On Directing
05. Red Belt
06. The Cure
07. Northshore
08. Night Watch
09. Alligator
10. Paperback Head
11. The Ocean
12. Sentimental Tune
13. Someday
Tegan and Sara: website | myspace | interview with: Tegan pt. 1, pt. 2 | @ terminal 5
