Tegan and Sara: So Jealous : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Canadian twin sisters Tegan and Sara Quin were barely out of high school when Neil Young and Ryan Adams began singing their praises. Young, gay and wielding acoustic guitars, a Lilith Fair tour and an Ani DiFranco-esque debut album (This Business of Art) could've sealed a semi-obscure indie-folk future for the duo. But the siblings' collective musical heart yearns for Eighties pop, and on their third release they set their confessional lyrics to buoyant punk-pop melodies and flood their mostly three-minute-and-under tunes with synth-y keyboards (provided by ex-Weezer/Rentals member Matt Sharp) and an occasional rhythm lifted from the Cars. The twins' vocals are more girlish than angsty, which makes lines like "I wouldn't like me if I met me" ("You Wouldn't Like Me") all the more charming. Co-produced by like-minded Canucks John Collins (New Pornographers) and David Carswell (Smugglers), who also worked on their second release, So Jealous reveals flashes of brilliance and hints at what is bound to be a long, fertile career ahead, especially in the build-up of the cleverly arranged "Where Does the Good Go," and the completely addictive "Speak Slow," which sounds like Sleater-Kinney on a sugar-candy-and-Toni-Basil bender.