Love You To Death, For Better Or For Worse

Image via Tegan and Sara, Vapor, and Warner Bros.

Album Review: Tegan and Sara – Love You To Death

Two of the most important musicians in not only modern music, but the LGBTQIA movement, Tegan and Sara Quin, have released their eighth full length album: Love You To Death. After more than twenty years in the music business, the sister duo from Calgary, Alberta — Canada, in layman’s terms — have gone through yet another sonic change. The duo’s 2013 release Heartthrob, was their first real foray into the sheen that is pop music, and the album proved that no matter what T&S did, it would be work. Prior to LYTD and Heartthrob, the sisters stuck heavily to a guitar base sound; they focused on acoustics, and lyrics darker and colder than the open plains of Canada. As the years went on, they opened up their pallet and expanded their sound, all culminating to the pop landmark that they’re currently poised on. Never mainstream, but never needing to be, Tegan and Sara perfect the pop sound they’ve dabbled with, and fully succeed; they’ve tackled pop’s current and never ending obsession with 80’s synth, and do it better than ever before.

Producers and sounds may have changed for the duo, but what hasn’t is their sharp tongues and cutthroat emotional delivery. After self producing their work, and featuring producers like Chris Walla of Death Cab For Cutie on past albums, the band re-recruited Greg Kurstin as their main co-producer. Kurstin previously worked on Heartthrob with the duo. Kurstin is also one of the most interesting producers in pop music. He doesn’t use recycled beats ála Dr. Luke, yet creates music and beats with mosaic indents layered all over; it’s pop done right and well.

Tegan and Sara stick to the song writing on LYTD and what the listener gets is another entry from each of their respective journals. Another reason why the album works so well is due to the Quin’s maturity. As Tegan and Sara approach the age of thirty-five, their music also reaches peak maturity. They understand the fun approach their music can have when paired with the right musical backing, but don’t sacrifice emotionality to sell a record.

On Heartthrob, the sister’s called Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Britney Spears, and Lily Allen as their main modern musical influences. However, they also called out many artists from the 80’s and early 90’s such as Kate Bush, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, and Ace of Base. Heartthrob worked so well because it was almost a complete genre piece, cohesively flowing very well until the end of the album. LYTD works well in places because the sisters don’t use the sonic changes to their detriment; however, it seems without Heartthrob, the current effort wouldn’t exist. They took three years to figure out what worked and what didn’t.

Right from the start, the sisters lament lost love, growing older, and the changes they see in not only themselves, but in each other. Another ever present theme is their openness about sexuality. Both openly gay, the twins sing about the struggles of dealing with their partners. The album opens with the mid-tempo ‘That Girl’ as to almost give the listener a direct sequel song to the mid-tempo tail end of Heartthrob. ‘That Girl’ features a pounding 808 beat with a soft rock piano backing. It sounds and feels like an interlude as the only real interesting part of the song is the chorus, but the song as a whole isn’t bad: it’s just a very uninteresting way to open an album.

However, LYTD begins to pick up immediately. ‘Faint of Heart’ while still somewhat mid-tempo, would have been an almost better opening track as it’s fully realized with an explosive jangle pop sound meshed with heavy drum beats. Kurstin plays with drum and percussion beats throughout the album, adding to it’s modern 80’s perfections. The lead single, ‘Boyfriend’ is next. ‘Boyfriend’ features journalistic lyrics surrounding a relationship between two women, but with one of them being unfamiliar with a same-sex relationship dynamic. The song already sounds like a modern blueprint for queer pop. The duo openly sing so proudly about the struggle gays and lesbians face while in a relationship with someone who may not be fully out and open.

‘Dying To Know’ features lyrics about looking at a past love and sounds almost hip-hop like. Between ‘Dying To Know’ and the somewhat middling mid-tempo ‘White Knuckles’, is the best song on LYTD and perhaps the best song in Tegan and Sara’s discography: ‘Stop Desire’. It’s an explosive monster of a song. The lyrics are sensual and brilliant, and mirror the twin’s song off of Heartthrob, ‘Closer’. The song almost sounds like a piece of writing off one of their older albums such as The Con or Sainthood, but with a huge musical backing. More importantly, what makes ‘Stop Desire’ an amazing piece of music is the fact that it’s a song basically about sex that isn’t sexualizing a sexuality that is fetishized by mainstream audiences. The pre-chorus is musical perfection: “get me / feel me / want me / like me / love me / need me” It’s sung almost as a whisper, and captures the throws of passion in relationships.

‘100x’ is very Bangles and is the breakup equivalent to ‘Eternal Flame’. The following song ‘BWU’ — short for ‘Be With You’ — is another song that sounds very Sainthood and ‘U-Turn’ is the most synth happy song on the album. ‘100x’ features some of the darkest lyrics ever sung by the band: “I swear I tried to leave you / At least a hundred times a day / I swear I tried to tell you / A thousand times, a different way” Backed by only a piano and a vocoder, the duo sing about leading someone on and being in the wrong — an aspect sometimes left out of the ‘blame game’ when relationships come to and end. The album ends with an ‘it gets better’ anthem: ‘Hang On To The Night’. After nine tracks of heartbreak, love and love lost, sexuality, and romance, the band closes the album with this tenth track. ‘Hang On’ finds the sisters proclaiming the pain of not being over someone and hanging on to every last word, but looking forward to eventually and hopefully moving on.

Not only is ‘Love You To Death’ the best pop album released in 2016 thus far, it’s also one of the best albums to come out this year in general. It’s a simple and short ten track album that never feels too long or too short. It features some slower songs that may take a listen or two to fully appreciate, but it’s suffice to say that the Quin’s latest album is also one of their best. Sonically cohesive and lyrically fully realized, Tegan and Sara have reached the apex of music. But, what’s so amazing is that they’ll still find a way to climb higher and get that much better.