You say you
haven't heard Tegan and Sara's new CD yet? Ex-squeeze me?
The fact that
T&S are Canadian lesbian identical twin sisters who
look like Kiki Dee is beside the point.
The Con
simply rocks--it's one of the best albums of the year.
You think they
couldn't top the pop perfection of 2004's
So Jealous
?
The album with "Walking With a Ghost" and "You
Wouldn't Like Me"? Well, you've been served.
The Con
kicks off with "I Was Married," and you
think,
This is the poem I want to read my
husband/wife/partner on his/her/their's deathbed.
It's fudgin' gorgeous.
Like the girls
themselves, all 14 songs are utterly strange and
beautiful. You try to wrap your head around lines like "That
thunder moves / Like damn drawers slamming in my frame
/ Slamming in my framework" on "Relief Next to
Me"; or "I'm taken, I am yours / I'm up and doing
circles / I collapse" in "Are You Ten Years
Ago?" Only Bjork has better song titles.
What do the songs
sound like? It's all over the place, in the best
way. Guitar-crunching rap on "Hop a Plane." Upbeat
melancholy a la Tori Amos on "Burn Your Life
Down." "Dark Come Soon" sounds like it could have come
out of the speakers of your mom's station wagon, like
a song that stays with you for two decades.
For those new to
T&S (Where have you been? This is their fifth
album!), you may be worried their stuff is way too esoteric
for you. Wrong! All the songs are completely
accessible--the title track will get you
pounding your fist and screaming "Nobody! Nobody! Nobody!
Nobody! Nobody!"; and "Back in Your Head" will be stuck in
your
head for weeks, but not in the Fergie way.
So, get thee to
Amazon.com, ASAP. I have not been paid by Sire Records.
I'm just way into T&S.
