CD Reviews

Tegan & Sara | Get Along

Warner Bros. (2011)

By RYAN REED | November 22, 2011

2.5 Stars

Trust me — I've searched, but I haven't found a more adorable band than Tegan & Sara: Canadian lesbian twins with squeaky-thin voices and ramshackle skills, banging out earnest pop epics with lyrics ripped straight from their diaries, delivering more heart and sweat in a single track than most bands could muster in two careers. There's absolutely nothing not to love about the duo, and I find myself rooting for them, defending them against the haters, even when they obviously don't need my help — their 2007 masterpiece, The Con, still runs laps around any other "indie-pop" album released then or since. But I still find myself aching to defend their first live album, Get Along, even though, musically speaking, it's a mixed bag. My issue isn't with the actual songs, which cover stand-outs from recent efforts like Sainthood and The Con, stretching back to their earlier, more Lilith Fair–styled milieu. No, the problem lies with the actual live performances, which are charmingly low-key at best (the striking acoustic take on the once-funky "Alligator") and, at worst, painfully out-of-tune (the almost bearable "Back in Your Head"). Even when a track like "Alligator" reveals a new layer you hadn't anticipated, you're still way better off listening to the studio version, where they sound like they nailed it the first time.

Trans Am | What Day Is It Tonight? Trans Am Live, 1993 - 2008
Trans Am are distillers of guilty pleasures, mixing fat AOR riffs with sleazy electronic accents and a propulsive attitude typically reserved for arcade soundtracks. What Day Is It Tonight? covers the DC-area band’s 20-year history with high-quality, high-energy live cuts taken from their many tours.
Various Artists | Where the Action Is: Los Angeles Nuggets 1965 - 1968
More than three years in the making, the most recent installment of Rhino's legendary archival garage-rock series offers an amazingly comprehensive excavation of an absurdly fertile scene.
Various Artists | Nippon Girls: Japanese Pop, Beat & Bossa Nova 1966–1970
Girl-group records are great and everything, yet the countless compilations out there were becoming a little hit-or-miss until 2005, when the great Girl Group Sounds Lost and Found box set finally gave this diverse genre a proper taxonomy.
Various Artists | Casual Victim Pile: Austin 2010
The notion that regional musical flavors exist independently in American cities is quickly becoming an archaic truism, seeing as how the world really is a stage these days, at least in the digital sense.
Bearstronaut | Broken Handclaps
There's a distinct absence of wildlife or astronauts on Lowell electronica quartet Bearstronaut's latest release.
Avi Buffalo | Avi Buffalo
Look, I get it: the last thing we need right now is yet another band who can be described as “sun-baked,” “reverb-soaked,” or even just “psychedelic.” But Avi Buffalo (I know! An animal name to boot!) are worth your attention for a few reasons.
Review: Brandon Flowers | Flamingo
Brandon Flowers has gone on record saying he brought the songs on Flamingo to his fellow bandmates for the next Killers album and was given the brush-off.
Review: Kevin Dunn | No Great Lost: Songs 1979–1985
Casa Nueva Industries (2010)
Review: Crocodiles | Sleep Forever
With remarkable swiftness, Crocodiles tick off all the key characteristics of a band in the thriving lo-fi indie/punk/garage scene.
Review: Teengirl Fantasy | 7AM
If the demise of traditional record making is designed to foster any band’s fruitful existence, it’s that of Teengirl Fantasy.
Review: Screaming Females | Castle Talk
Screaming Females are one of those rare examples of a band who fester so long in the dark — in this case, the teeming basements of New Brunswick, New Jersey — that they sour into something great by the time anyone’s heard of them.
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Topics: CD Reviews , Music, Tegan & Sara, Tegan & Sara, More

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