Jan 31, 2013

2013 has one great pop album already

"... Heartthrob counterbalances juvenility with an aged technique. Immaculate harmonies, taut call-and-responses, and major-key tenderness round out the album. This level of musicianship has been honed for years, from the surprising chord reversals on The Con to the studio flirtations on Sainthood so it’s unfair to call Heartthrob a departure — it’s more like a calculated step forward. And where the synths pause, a piano scale unravels. When Tegan asks “Do you remember?”, a bloom of harmony recalls. “I Was A Fool” takes a long look at failed romance through a dulcet split vocal. It sounds a bit like the Corrs, only it’s magnificent. Heartthrob invokes somber, marble notebook dumps as truthfully as it portrays its lustier foil. “Closer” is, to paraphrase Lena Dunham, a “tits-out” tribute to not getting to know someone. “All I dream of lately is how to get you underneath me,” Tegan sings. The two are more polite than Nine Inch Nails, but not by much. The single is the best pop song of 2013 so far and the credit is largely due to producer Greg Kurstin (Ke$ha, Kelly Clarkson). But “Closer”, and similar songs “I Couldn’t Be Your Friend”, “Drove Me Wild”, pull back on the reigns of contemporary schlock-pop. The vocals don’t compete with a rocket launch or dub-step drop. Instead, Tegan and Sara sound like La Roux crossed with Toni Basil. Genius levels of fun."
— Sarah H Grant, Consequence of Sound

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