Tegan and Sara aren’t for everyone. Some acquire a taste for the shrill-voiced duo, while others can never get past the piercing, idiosyncratic vocals. If one can accept their singing though, it’s love. As artists, they constantly explore and push the frontiers of music while still remaining pop-friendly.
Tegan and Sara’s sixth studio album, Sainthood, immediately lets the listener know that the pair’s alt-pop is moving in yet another new direction. Stripped down music, simplified lyrics and a hodgepodge of random electronics create an album that sounds familiar to fans but also radically different from anything they’ve ever done.
Leading track “Arrow” starts the album with quirky electro-percussion that leads into the quintessential vocal overlap and witty lyrics for which Tegan and Sara are so well known. There is a stilted, choppy feeling to the girls’ voices that continues throughout Sainthood, particularly on tracks like “Don’t Rush” and “Sentimental Tune.”
The overall quality of songs on Sainthood is fantastic. Track after track is emotive and unique, and none outright fail. Some, however, like “Paperback Head” achieve only mediocrity.
The biggest flaw of the album is the occasional posturing that tries to transform their music into something else. “Hell” sounds like a missing track from a Yeah Yeah Yeahs record, and “Northshore” could have been written by Blink-182. There is nothing wrong with either track, except for the fact that neither fits the album in the slightest.
Sainthood is yet another offering that showcases the immense talent of Tegan and Sara, though it falls short of canonization.
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