10.04.2007 = JAYPLAY
reviews 15
THE CON Tegan and Sara
Making an album in which almost every song is good is almost unheard of these days. Especially when an album has 14 songs, you expect a few duds that are instantly forgettable. But none of this is true on Tegan and Sara's latest effort, The Con.
With their previous album, So Jealous, it seemed Tegan and Sara had made perhaps the best album of their career. It had 14 tracks full of crunchy guitar riffs, biting vocals, and catchy hooks, but The Con finds Tegan and Sara topping that and making something even more exciting.
Tegan and Sara's music is full of real conflict. This is an element missing from most pop songs where conflicts generally include
things like what mall to visit or what character from *Laguna Beach* to imitate. Instead, they cover a variety of topics from gay marriage to dealing with a grandparent's death.
Highlights include the catchy "Back In Your Head," the push and pull of "Soil, Soil," the edgy and spitting, "Like O, Like H," and the closing track, "Call It Off," which showcases Tegan and Sara's continuous theme of melancholy with lines like, "Maybe I would have been something you be good at / Maybe you would have been something I'd be good at."
With The Con, Tegan and Sara show it is possible to make not only a good pop album, but more than one.
Tegan and Sara are performing at the Granada on Nov.5.
★★★★★
Chris Brower