Artist: Tegan and Sara
Album: Heartthrob
Release Date: Jan. 29
Label: Warner Bros.
Grade: B
Guilty pleasures are the things you really enjoy when no one's around. They're the things you pretend to hate in front of your bros, and the things you wish you really did hate, but actually love.
Tegan and Sara Quin's seventh studio album, Heartthrob, is just like that.
Many were introduced to the openly gay, twin sister Canadian duo on Grey's Anatomy in 2005 when it had five songs featured in season one of the show. Like Tegan and Sara, the show became something that tough guys started enjoying in secret, tuning in once a week on the couch with their moms.
Songs like 2007's "The Con" and 2004's "Fix You Up" are classic break up songs. "Walking With A Ghost" was an instant favorite in 2004, and it was eventually covered by the legendary rock duo, The White Stripes.
Heartthrobis the duo's most commercial-sounding album yet and most of the songs could easily be used in a corny, overly sentimental teen movie or a Gap commercial. Half of them could be top-10 radio hits if Carly Rae Jepsen or Katy Perry were singing them. The "indie" title that Tegan and Sara have donned over the years is a confusingly stupid one.
But Heartthrob is an album that's pleasing to the sensitive side in all of us.
The first song off the 10-track album, "Closer," establishes the new electronically charged sound that Tegan and Sara went for on the album. It sounds surprisingly fresh, and thankfully what remains throughout are the unique vocals that make a Tegan and Sara song unmistakably noticeable to any fan.
"Closer" also reveals a mature side of Tegan and Sara with lyrics that may shock those who only remember the duo's early work as the soundtrack to their first break-up.
"All you think of lately is getting underneath me/All I dream of lately is how to get you underneath me/Here comes the heat before we meet/A little bit closer/Here comes the spark before the dark/Come a little closer," the duo sings.
Heartthrobcarries the spirit of a young innocent lover with a broken heart into a newfound realm of grown up love. There's a lot of reflection on themes the duo tackled in past work with new outlooks and answers to love's most difficult questions. This is perfect for the fan that has grown with Tegan and Sara's music and listened for the span of their career.
"I Was A Fool" is a memory of the past when first-love feelings were overwhelming and the first taste of heartbreak was crushing. Tegan and Sara get all of their emotions out with this song in order move on from their 'foolish' years.
"Love They Say" is the realization of what love is supposed to be. This track embodies the awakening that Tegan and Sara are trying to share with fans that have struggled through the lovesick confusion with them over the years.
"You don't need to wonder if love will make us stronger/There's nothing love can't do," they sang.
One thing definitely hasn't changed. While the sound is refreshing and new, bros will still be enjoying Tegan and Sara in secret. They're still a guilty pleasure.
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