Tegan and Sara are not cool.
They don't even want to be.
I mentioned in my Rock 'N Roll post a few days ago about how uncool a record it is and, trust me, it is - but I think that's probably why Ryan Adams dismisses it. At one time he thought it was cool.
Tegan and Sara harbor no such delusions and their lack of pretension made The Con their best work to date and a record that has left me excited to hear what they do next.
Before The Con was released, Tegan and Sara started a viral marketing campaign that showed them working with producer Chris Walla in short videos about each song on the record. I saw these videos first and they probably played a part in my loving the record. Tegan and Sara are really wonderful - sarcastic, funny, tough, playful, self-depricating - it's virtually impossible to not fall in love with them and this was a shrewd business move. I remember watching the "Hop a Plane" video (if you haven't seen it no one liked "Hop a Plane" except Tegan, who wrote it) and coming out of it fully in the Team Tegan camp and as a result, "Hop a Plane" became my favorite song on the record.
Do I like The Con because of how much I like Tegan and Sara as people? Sure. But, I also like it because of the melodies and the harmonies and the hooks - it's pop music and I tend to like pop music. Would this record make the list if not for their personalities? I think so.
It's not a perfect record by any means (I personally can't stand "Are You Ten Years Ago"), but it's highs are really, really high (the title track and "Dark Come Soon" are particularly spectacular) and this record was a really big one for me in the summer of 2007, one I still revisit often and I guess in the end that's the test of a great record. It came out two years ago and I just listened to it last weekend.
But I skipped "Are You Ten Years Ago."
No comments:
Post a Comment