FILE UNDER: POP, CUTE BUT NOT CUTESY
Tegan and Sara
So Jealous
Vapor Records
So when you first hear about a pair of punk rock twins from Calgary with berhip hairdos and baby-girl voices, you're thinking something like Avril Lavigne or Lillix, pumping out tunes written by the Matrix. But there's nothing phony about Tegan and Sara (just spotted at Long Beach's Fingerprints!), and So Jealous is by far their best effort yet: not as glossy and Alanis-lite as 2002's If It Was You, not as folky and Ani DiFranco-ish as 2000's This Business of Art. At times, their lyrics are as sweetly self-deprecating as Juliana Hatfield's, but their sound is consistently as infectious as the Rentals at their finest, thanks to a special appearance by Matt Sharp on the moog. The Quin sisters write and record separately, and this time around, they made a point of capturing the lo-fi nuances of their respective bedroom recordings in the studio. Their voices are so similar, though, it's hard to tell whether the uncertain girl who wrote “I feel like I wouldn't like me if I met me” is the same vixen who croons, “If you want to get off, you might as well get off with me.” But they're cute without being cutesy, and on “I Bet It Stung,” when they say, “I love the rock N roll”—with a little bit of distortion roughing up the edges of their doubled vocals—it's clear they have more in common with Joan Jett than, say, Mary-Kate and Ashley.
