Album Review: Tegan & Sara - "Crybaby"

 

Hands up, it's been a fair while since I last listened to a Tegan & Sara album so I'll admit to being a little out of the loop here with the much-acclaimed Canadian lo-fi pop-punk duo. I remember listening to and enjoying a few of their early albums like Sainthood and The Con but I think this might be the first album of theirs that's crossed my path since So Jealous way back in 2009.

Perhaps unsurprisingly given that it's well over a decade since my last encounter with them, my initial thoughts on listening to Crybaby is that this is the sound of a more grown up Tegan & Sara with the opening duo of I Can't Grow Up and All I Wanted are breathless slices of dream-pop which drift by blissfully before Fucking Up What Matters comes on like the Nova Twins with added nous and a less brickbat approach, an ode to a destructive relationship with lines like "I don't hate you, I just hate what we've become" and shows that this is still a band with the capability to surprise. Yellow has a similar end-of-relationship vibe but is a more reflective and gentle look at things ("This bruise ain't black, it's yellow")

As Crybaby goes on, it becomes fairly clear that this is Tegan & Sara's heartbreak album with a lot of the songs visiting this subject - on the one hand Smoking Weed Alone is an ode to picking yourself up and dusting yourself off and Under My Control is an ode to identifying your shortcomings and trying to make sure they don't mess up future relationships the same as they did this one. On the other, the self-explanatory Faded Like A Feeling is a regretful look back at past mistakes and the mournful This Ain't Going Well speaks for itself ("You can't love somebody you didn't really trust..."), likewise the gentle bewilderment of Whatever That Was ("I guess I never really ever knew you at all/And I guess I never realised it till you were gone").

Crybaby is possibly one of the most brutally accurate heartbreak albums you'll hear. It's supremely schizophrenic in its sound but somehow it makes perfect sense in the context, summing up the mass of hurtful and contradictory emotions that flood through you whenever something you've invested so much of yourself in isn't there anymore. Whether you feel as if you need something like this in your life right now or just want some genuinely great thought-provoking music, this is definitely well worth a listen.

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑 (8/10)