Thursday , March 28 2024
On Get Along , Tegan and Sara fascinate and engage listeners with strong, emotional pop music with an edge.

Music Review: Tegan and Sara – Get Along

Tegan and Sara’s new CD set Get Along has a lot to offer their many fans: it includes two mini-documentaries that aim to let fans have a real glimpse at the girls’ lives along with the 15-track live CD.

Tegan and Sara are Canadian identical twins who are sometimes characterized as “folk-rock” and sometimes as “power-pop.” Their music contains elements of both, with much more of an edge than most people associate with “folk-rock” but not as heavy as “power-pop” might seem to suggest. Certainly, they are strongly in the singer-songwriter tradition with lyrics that convey clearly the powerful emotions behind them.

Listen to “Alligator,” for instance, or “Monday Monday Monday” with its repeated “Ooh, and I, said damn your mood swings, damn your mood swings,” and the tone is set that this CD is not going to be about daisies and sunshine. The lyrics are about disappointment, sadness, and relationships that just aren’t working. Other titles include “Not With You,” “Knife Going In,” and “I Won’t Be Left,” making it pretty clear that these are songs of love and pain, not love and joy.

Tegan and Sara’s voices perfectly complement each other and give the songs both that folk edge and the sense of walking on broken glass. The interplay between them keeps every song interesting and the listener fully engaged. The accompaniments are simple, mostly guitar and sometimes piano, and the tempo is pretty much mid-range throughout. The songs use a lot of repetition in a very effective manner, stopping just short of annoying but clearly reflecting the frustration and anger the lyrics convey.

There are no songs that disappoint on this CD, and while I have not seen the mini-documentaries, I can say that fans of the duo and anyone who likes pop music with an edge will like this CD very much.

About Rhetta Akamatsu

I am an author of non-fiction books and an online journalist. My books include Haunted Marietta, The Irish Slaves, T'ain't Nobody's Business If I Do: Blues Women Past and Present, Southern Crossroads: Georgia Bluesand Sex Sells: Women in Photography and Film.

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