Montreal Mirror - September 5th
Lorraine Carpenter
Tegan and Sara - If It Was You (Superclose/Universal)
These prairie-born, B.C.-dwelling twin sisters make a brave about-face on
this sophomore disc, shedding their sparse, furrowed-brow folk for a broader
pop-rock approach. The major label brain-rinse, a "Presto, mainstream!"
producer plus plain old creative laziness could have spelled disaster, but
the majority of songs are strong and accessible, the producers are New
Pornographers alumni, and the roots remain, as on the bluegrass-styled
"Living Room" and the acoustic come-on "And Darling." Most importantly,
there's no sickly modern pop sheen, letting the sisters rock out, harmonize
and '80s-it-up, when they want to, in good taste. 8/10