As a fellow punk aficionado, it was a slow transition for me to start listening to stuff outside of the realm of music that this site seems to thrive off of. But I am a bit older than I suspect the mean age of viewer-ship is on this monster, and I guess that with age you tend to diversify various tastes and try new stuff out mostly because it gets boring doing the same old things or listening to the same CDs over and over, year after year. So yeah, basically here I am reviewing something that I suspect would normally receive a handful of shit thrown at by the typical 16-year-old listener, but here I am also saying "fuck you" to those same kids. This review goes out to the weary early-to-mid-twenties demographic, and hopefully some open-minded young'uns as well, who are just sort of tired with the "musica regurgitata" found here all too often.

OK. So basically, Tegan And Sara are a "two-piece-singer-songwriter-duo-with-a-band" sort of deal. They are two sisters from Canada who play music that could easily be lumped in with the "hey look at me I could play Lilith Fair" category with a quick glance, but they are actually a lot more focused and refined than that placement would allow. The music they play on this record is very professionally layered and intricate, with perfect vocal harmonies and song structures ranging from slower acoustic tracks to almost new wave dance numbers. The instrumentation runs the gamut from totally "plugged in" songs to mostly acoustic songs to keyboard/moog-driven songs (with some help from the keyboardist of Weezer). The choruses are for the most part extremely infectious, with well-placed melodies and dual harmonies coming from the sister duo in well-calculated places. The first track "You Wouldn't Like Me" is a super catchy song that starts off mostly acoustic and later kicks in with the lines "There's nothing to live for when I'm sleeping alone" and "I feel like I wouldn't like me if I met me." The second track "Take Me Anywhere" picks right up where the first left off, upbeat and catchy, with a similar lyrical theme focusing on the desperation of love, which happens to be the main theme throughout the rest of the album as well. The remainder of the songs range from slow to mildly upbeat with many strong and memorable moments throughout, but the one main standout track on this album has to be track number 10, "Speak Slow." This song is just flat out awesome. It is upbeat, catchy as hell, semi-danceable (think "drunk at 80's night"), and I'm pretty sure it will end up on any mix tape I make in the next few years. The CD is also enhanced and it comes with a professionally edited video on the making of the album, which actually happens to be very interesting.

So like I say, if you want a replacement to your FEAR / OP IVY/ JUDGE / NOFX / SIMPLE PLAN / GORILLA BISCUITS records, look somewhere else. But if you want something different that's actually really friggin' good and meaningful and well put together and not necessarily "punk" as it seems to be defined around here, definitely give this a try. It's great stuff.

Speak Slow MP3