Tegan & Sara - Love You To Death (June 3, 2016) Album • Page 11

This is exactly how I feel after my first listen. I'm hoping it grows on me a little.

I don't know if I'll love this quite like I did Heartthrob but I hope I find more in it over time.

 

Don't know if I just did a really good job about managing my expectations for this thing, but damn I love this. Wasn't even that crazy about the singles as they came out, but for a collection of pop songs it feels pretty nuanced and restrained and I love that. Retains a nice vibe throughout, and still has those great old-school Tegan and Sara lyrics. Where as Heartthrob sometimes felt like they were stretching their songwriting out into avenues that didn't really fit them or got a little generic, here they feel completely at home.

Love it.

 

im not sure if it's as good as Heartthrob yet, but I still really really like this album.

 

I tried to listen to this album today...ugh I can't get into the synth-pop stuff what so ever. Maybe if it was "dark" synth-pop or whatever you want to call it, but it's just too upbeat and "dancy" for my liking.

This is unfortunate because I loved these girls so much and had such a great connection with a lot of their lyrics from the mid-late 2000's.

 

First impression, one casual listen so far: The most underwhelmed I've been with one of their albums since I first started listening to them. I do like that it does have a bit of variation on the synthpop sound so it doesn't sound like a total Heartthrob sequel, but the flip side of that is that I don't find it as catchy or immediately grabbing as the previous record.

I'm hoping this will grow on me as I spend more time with it. I still love "U-Turn" and "Boyfriend" has grown on me a lot...hoping most of the other tracks will do the same.

 

Does the musicianship being toned down 99% mean anything to you?

I might be talking out of my ass here, but since there are no instruments on the record (at least none that I can hear), it's safe to assume that producers developed the music for each track while T&S just sing.

 

Tegan and Sara know how to play synths.

 

That was what I wasn't sure about. Did they write the music for these tracks or do they have a producer making the music?

 

"No instruments" l m a o

 

They literally play those synths on stage like... all the time.

They always have wrote their own music. Why would this be different?

 

Drum kit, guitar, bass. I didn't hear any of those...and for T&S, that's what I consider instruments. Yes I'm aware that they would occasionally play keyboards on stage.

You know what I mean.

 

Because when they were on Fallon (I think), playing Boyfriend, they just danced around and sang with a music track.

 

Then what's making the music?

 

I think it's just massively bland. I've probably listened to it about a dozen times, and there's just nothing gripping it, I think they've massively diluted what was so interesting about them. It has absolutely nothing to do with "real" instruments or any of that nonsense, but the songwriting and lyricism on this and Heartthrob is just, for me, so uninteresting compared to their earlier records. There's some little highlights on here, but nothing that comes anywhere close to the best of So Jealous, The Con and Sainthood.

They are swinging hard for the mainstream pop acceptance, which is absolutely fine with me, but they're just not delivering. And I'm really sad about it, but this is not a good album to me.

 

Computer generated beats? Synths?

 

They wrote all of these songs along with producer Greg Kurstin.

 

I haven't heard the whole thing but I can assure you that there are instruments on this record

 

these are instruments

 

Lyrics for certain, it was the music I was curious about.

 

Ok.

 

Those take musicianship.

 

There's no less musicianship in using computers to make songs. You're still choosing what notes to play.

Listening to the album now. I agree with a few of you that it's not as instantly catchy as Heartthrob. It's kinda like ambient pop music to have on in the background rather than Heartthrob which I would actively want to listen to. U turn and Stop Desire are really good though.

 

It's just difficult for me to process how they went from an indie sounding band to typical pop music. I remember having this same problem when The Format turned into .Fun

 

A few songs on Heartthob (the singles) were amazing. Then again I gravitate towards Tegan's songs on all of their albums.

 

the format always made pop music? pop is multifaceted