Tegan and Sara – Sainthood

I always assumed that Tegan and Sara were just two feminists or sisters that sang the type of music that, immediately following, would require a two hour embrace from your mother or a session of circle cutting on the bathroom floor for the listener. I’m assuming that this opinion originated in high school from the type of people that sat in the hallway alone at lunch with their backpack, disc-man, and headphones wearing their favourite Tegan and Sara t-shirt for the fifth day in a row. All that said, my wife and I, by chance, saw T&S opening for City and Colour this past summer at the Molson Amphitheatre and I was pleasantly surprised by both the style of their music as well as the VERY evident amount of talent backing said music. It took me until today, January 5^th, 2011, on my ride in on the train, to listen to Sainthood (released in 2009) in its entirety. I can’t speak for any of their other contributions but I can say that Sainthood is an impressive musical work. Noteworthy songs for me include: Arrow (album opener), Hell (yes EVEN though this is the only single played on the radio), Alligator (one of my particular favourites), and Paperback Head all of which are a fair representation of the overall up-tempo tone of the album. All in all, you won’t be able to resist stomping your foot along to Sainthood while all the while, however slowly, changing your opinion of a musical act who, in my opinion, was once synonymous with the “EMO” phenomenon headed by the likes of Dashboard Confessional and Taking Back Sunday.

You can find Sainthood at Amazon.ca (standard edition) or on iTunes (deluxe edition incl. bonus tracks).