ext_380270 ([identity profile] jauntyalan.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] poptimists2009-11-13 01:59 pm

tegan and sara - i need some direction/convincing

i heard about them a lot passively (esp here over the years), and i KNOW i've see the odd song/video that i liked. but i recently acquired (hem hem) most of their albums, and clicking about on the ipods i'm not all that struck.

:-/

[identity profile] strange-powers.livejournal.com 2009-11-13 02:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Walking With a Ghost from So Jealous



Back In Your Head from The Con
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyTe49e9i0Y&feature=channel

My favorite of theirs is The Con (from the album of the same name), a weird and furious bit of power pop.

[identity profile] friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com 2009-11-13 02:12 pm (UTC)(link)
No, I'm in the same boat. Found my local library had a few of their albums so took this as an opportunity to get to know them better. Verdict: mostly bored.

[identity profile] skyecaptain.livejournal.com 2009-11-13 02:40 pm (UTC)(link)
They're pretty hit or miss for me. I loved their The Con album from c. 2 years ago, favorite song from it is "Nineteen" (calllll meeeeeee), but the new album does nothing for me whatsoever.



I think the key is that their hooks tend to be straight out of some build-a-hook ABC's-of-songwriting book, repeated without much in-song development, so the key is actually identifying with the stuff in the song as well as the really obvious melody hook. (Marc Hogan aptly described one of their tunes as a "commercial jingle," which he meant derisively but I think can be a compliment!)

[identity profile] skyecaptain.livejournal.com 2009-11-13 02:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Problem with finding a way in through their lyrics is that their lyrics alternate between totally cryptic and totally sappy (or sappy-cryptic) and it's difficult for them to hit the middle-ground where their best songs tend to happen. (E.g., "I was nineteen / Call me" strikes me as an excellent lyric, simple and evocative, but it's pretty bare-bones prose, no great effort to make some kinda dodgy poetic metaphor out of it, which they seem to do a lot on the new one.)

[identity profile] sbp.livejournal.com 2009-11-13 03:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Their banter at their gigs is quite fun - check YouTube - but I'm not such a fan of the actual songs.

Seek out Jenny Owen Youngs and Ingrid Michaelson instead...

[identity profile] katstevens.livejournal.com 2009-11-13 03:29 pm (UTC)(link)
I love 'Back In Your Head' but otherwise they are a bit hrmmm.

[identity profile] byebyepride.livejournal.com 2009-11-14 06:52 am (UTC)(link)
I really liked most of So Jealous when it came out, but I haven't really fallen for anything I've heard since by them - i think it was a combination of what music and moment, for me, rather than anything intrinsically great about the band.
koganbot: (Default)

Baby, this is the last honest look I'll ever give

[personal profile] koganbot 2009-11-14 10:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Haven't heard much and have been more baffled and bored than otherwise by what I did hear, yet I quite like "This Is Everything" and its delicate, spindly resentment, enough so that I firmly place T and S in the category Subject For Further Research (and will click vids and links above when I get the chance):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15t4bBaTaaY
Edited 2022-08-02 03:58 (UTC)