Music

‘It’s always, “Tegan And Sara’s new record – they’re gay, gay, gay, gay, big fat gay, gay, gay, gay,”’ one of the duo has said of their coverage. ‘If it’s an article in the gay press, that’s OK. But why, in a review of a record, does it have to talk about us being gay? It’s a music magazine; write about the music.’ Okay, okay – will do.

Canadian twins Tegan and Sara Quinn first fizzed into earshot in 2004 with their (second) album, ‘So Jealous’, a batch of taut, ’80s power-pop tunes possessed of a bubblegum sweetness, but smarting like TCP applied to a fresh cut. Lead single ‘Walking With A Ghost’ not only marked out the then 24-year-old guitarists/vocalists as a post-millennial mini Veruca Salt, but also prompted The White Stripes to cover it. Now, the siblings offer 14 even more tightly compacted, indecently catchy, post-grunge pop gems sung in their oddly thick and sticky voices. ‘The Con’, however, nurses a darker, more personal heart and its flirtations with synthetic beats and moody electronica (on ‘Are You Ten Years Ago’, ‘Like O, Like H’ and ‘Floorplan’) might spook the Avril Lavigne demographic. Like, too bad. The twins have grown up and so must their audience.