Canadian pop duo stays scrappy despite polished, mature
sound
“I miss the days when Tegan & Sara were little Ani
DiFrancos in training,” said a poster on Prefix’s
website. That person is going to hate Sainthood, which is too
bad—some of their best work is here. The Quin twins are now
pushing 30, and they’re no longer flirting with mainstream
pop sounds; they’re reveling in them.
Their sixth studio album seamlessly entwines the exuberance of
Cyndi Lauper with compressed pop-punk chords, synthy new-wave and
Euro-techno. The arrangements are consistently dynamic and clear,
but Tegan & Sara’s wordy vocals steal the
show—they split the difference between the stylized
register-hopping of club divas and the winningly obvious earworms
of Avril Lavigne. And some of their sharpest lyrics are here,
exploring the self-aware heartaches of adulthood. “I know
you feel it too/ These words get overused,” they belt
passionately over the ringing chords of lead single
“Hell.” That’s the hell of being heartbroken at
30, as opposed to, say, 20—you can’t even convince
yourself it’s a big deal.