Date: April.11.2004 Author: Hossein Publication: TeganAndSara[dot]org Column: Versus Headline: THEY'RE NOT ANI D JUNIORS NO MORE

Almost one year has passed since my first hearing of If It Was You, which was also the most exciting record experience of the year for me. This Business Of Art was perhaps equally disappointing. Though both were released within two years time, they follow two completely different kinds of approach in popular music. Here's my view on why If It Was You is the better album, why I prefer that approach. * Tegan & Sara and the Current It's not a revolution, but it's what the current scene needs. I definitely don't believe in the idea that everything great has been done, and there are no more good ideas left to be found, which as ridiculous as it may sound, is something I hear around me from time to time. But, I do think that popular music is in a very critical situation, where nothing matters anymore…It fails to excite, and it also fails to entertain. On one side you have the trivial, romantic aspects that for self-explanatory reasons can't even hold on to such claims, and on the other side, pop music is being performed and talked of as it was "art", while the production of it clearly shows that it's not art because it's limited, and you can't provoke anyone with the few innovative possibilities that are there for it. When it all comes down to it, they're all three minute verse-chorus-verse bits. And so I think it's a good idea to get back to the basics, and whether that only means making things enjoyable again, or using this as a starting point to something new, that's another story. One thing I see in all the articles about this record is that Tegan and Sara have left their old sound, gotten a new band to come back with truly rocking record, which would be a pleasant surprise to everyone who thought of their previous effort as pretentious, predictable or bland. I don't really see that and I think the inaccuracy of these descriptions has to do with the usage of a commercial language, rather than being a review. There's nothing exciting about another rock 'n' roll record, nothing impressive about the same old formula of faster beats, distorted guitars and shouting vocals (and the bass that doesn't get any recognition anyway). Let's see how many real rockers we have on this album; "Time Running"…Is that it? I think so. I'm pretty sure If It Was You won't go down in history as a classic record, because it doesn't offer a new style or sound, it's just a collection of good pop songs, with a diversity that keeps it from being boring or repetitive as many classics tend to be. But that's what it is - a really good, entertaining pop record, with the folk elements still there keeping it in touch with the roots of a POPULAR tradition. * Production The production on If It Was You is brilliant, so I'm happy to hear that Carswell and Collins will also be producing the new album. I'd say I'm mostly impressed with how they managed to make it as powerful as it is, which is difficult for a traditional pop/rock record since it's facing more demanding listeners as it's something heard before. It's funny how the tiring retro wave is attempting to create a fake garage sound to the extent that you start to appreciate a good quality production for a rock record. As much as it tries to get the live sound of the 60s, it clearly sounds like 21st century's attempt to get that sound. All I've heard about the comparison between the production of the previous two efforts is about potential in terms of budget, and I don't see it as the sole reason behind Hawksley Workman's poor production. If he was aware of the limitations, then he should've worked on getting the live sound of Tegan and Sara, possibly keeping it acoustic, instead of turning it into B-level Linkin' Park as in on "Hype." "My Number" is even worse, starting to sound like "Iris" by Goo Goo Dolls when we're getting near the chorus. Overall, the production is very artificial, it sounds like a cheap keyboard is playing everything apart from vocals and guitars. But all the blame can't be put on the production. *Vocals The vocals might be the greatest asset of Tegan and Sara's more current performances. On This Business Of Art, the same thing is one of the major problems. Here, they sound predictable and pretentious. It has a trivial, "emotional", approach where what is known as the emotional aspect is supposed to reach the listener simply by displaying these emotions in the form of acting. If the emotion is, for example, "angst", then I'm supposed to SOUND as if the feeling is right there as I'm doing the vocal performance, which in this case is some kind of heavy breathing. There's no control and you're actually supposed to prove that you don't have control, which to make it short, is heard most clearly in songs like "The First" and "My Number". On If It Was You, they have control over what they're doing, they use their vocals as instruments, and what is moving about them is as unexplainable as the sound of the guitar or rhythm section. The vocals are not predictable, they've developed into something eccentric for both of them - and for some reason, it seems like some are bothered by it - and judging by the unreleased material, live performances and "Missing You", they've developed even further. *Lyrics Naturally, the lyrics follow the same pattern for each album, This Business Of Art is a pretentious "poetic" effort, which fails for the same reason as the music, which also means that it had to fail because it wouldn't make sense to have a totally different approach for the lyrics, unless it's a parody. If It Was You as an album, doesn't take itself too seriously, and this is also shown in the lyrics, there's the awareness of the fact that this is a pop record, period. Pop is mostly about irony, wit and intelligence, but Tegan and Sara succeed where most of the others - mainly the one-dimensional retro acts - fail because they also put a whole deal of passion in their work, maybe that's what makes it all the more amusing; "My health is failing me/ So I flip on the television /And watch sad movies/ And look for sad sick people like me". *2004 I'm definitely looking forward to the next album, and if there are reasons for worries, it'd be that the expectations couldn't be any higher as far as I'm concerned - I think Tegan and Sara is the most exciting act alive right now (including the Coral). The worries that are there have to do with the unreleased material and the one B-side. I like them all, but I can also hear that they're all leaning on garage rock, and I really wouldn't want the one song off of If It Was You, "And Darling", that is slightly predictable in a contextual perspective, to be an indication of what is coming. Back to Versus