Artificial Heart: Tegan and Sara’s Heartthrob

Oh Tegan & Sara… how many times have I listened to your albums during a break up? Four years after their last album, Sainthood, the Canadian twins have released their latest offering, Heartthrob. With any release from an artist/group with even a modest number of prior works, there is a common trap that is hard to avoid: Staying too close to their established sound, or deviating too far from it.

On the whole, Heartthrob is an enjoyable listen. The melodies are strong, the lyrics are good and singing is good. On the other hand, there is nothing particularly memorable about it. From the very beginning, Tegan & Sara want you to know that this is not business as usual. The opening track, and first single, “Closer,” is a straight up pop song. And it works extremely well; it doesn’t sound overproduced, and melds the band’s signature sound without completely obliterating it. Tegan and Sara have already proven that they can do more than their folk-rock roots, especially on their collaboration with DJ Tiesto on his track “Feel It In My Bones,” and “Closer” builds on that tradition. “Closer” reminds me of Goldfrapp’s single “Alive,” it’s happy and danceable and a great opening song to the album. I was definitely surprised by the pop sound of the track, as it’s not at all what I expected, but it makes it seem as though this could work.

Unfortunately, the rest of the album as a whole does not work as well as the opening track. The album is an extremely frustrating one for me to listen to; I would fluctuate between loving and hating it, not even from song to song, but during an individual track. While “Closer” is a pop track influenced by T&S’s earlier work, forming a marriage of the two, the rest of the album sounds as if it was recorded before “Closer,” and then someone said, “We should make the rest of the songs sound more like that!” It’s as though someone took a pop finish veneer and smeared it across the album. The result is an album that is not very dynamic, and sounds like pretty much the same song throughout. As I said earlier, for most new albums from established artists, the problem is that critics will pan it for being too similar or too different; the problem with Heartthrob is that it’s neither enough like their old stuff or a big enough departure.

There are some songs which work pretty well with this more pop driven approach, “I Was a Fool” is a pretty standard pop song, and it works great. On the other hand, “How Come You Don’t Want Me Now” is ruined by the chorus. The beginning is intriguing, and is filled with an urgency and self deprecating tone that defines T&S’s earlier works: “I can’t say that I’m sorry / I get so ahead of myself  / I can’t say that I’m sorry / For loving you and hating myself.” However, as the song moves into the chorus, all of the sudden the song is overridden by a happy, upbeat melody that is a complete disconnect from the lyrics that are being sung: “How come you don’t want me now? / Why don’t you want to wait this out? / How come you always lead me on / Never take my call, hear me out?” This disconnect ruins what could be a awesome song of pain and anguish after a break up.

This weird synthesizer overlay is present on many of the songs, “Goodbye, Goodbye” and “Drove Me Wild” for example, and it really ruins it for me. It’s not even that it sounds bad, it’s perfectly fine musically, but it just ruins the tone of the album. One of the things I love about T & S’s prior work is that I feel the songs really emphasize the instruments played. In Heartthrob, the overproduction drowns that out, it sounds too busy, whereas I think using a more minimalist would have been a better choice.

I am not saying that they should sound like their albums before, but that the new style could be done better. There are some definite high points on this album, “I Couldn’t Be Your Friend” definitely incorporates the pop element but it works well. There isn’t too much going on, and you can concentrate on the music and the lyrics. Similarly, “Shock to Your System” is a much darker song than the rest of the album.

Low Point

To me, the low point of the album was the song “Love They Say.” I found the lyrics to be completely cliched and tired (“(love, they say this) / You don’t need to wonder / If love will make us stronger / There’s nothing love can’t do”). The music was boring, and sounded like something that a non-angry Alanis Morissette would produce.

High Point

My favorite song on the album is “Now I’m All Messed Up,” the beginning is absolutely fantastic and the chorus, while again featuring those damn synths, works wonderfully. I am especially fond of the lyrics, specifically the line “Now I’m all messed up / I’m sick inside, wondering where / Where you’re leaving your makeup,” a perfect representation of the ways little things about a lost partner can drive you mad.

Summary

Tegan and Sara have taken a step in the direction of pop, a step which I find as unnecessary, and in fact, harmful. Even though Heartthrob has been produced to be catchy, there is no song that gets stuck in my head the way “Speak Slow,” “Nineteen,” “Alligator” or many other of their other songs have. That said, if this is the direction they want to take, there are songs on the album that show they can do it well if they don’t get stuck in a rut. As an album in general, it’s an enjoyable little pop bauble, but doubtful it will make any best of lists.

Quantitative: 6.5/10