Tegan And Sara - Crybaby

Unter dem etwas beliebigen Titel „High School“ wurden die gleichnamigen Memoiren von Tegan und Sara Quin, die 2019 erschienen sind, in Form einer achtteiligen Miniserie verfilmt. Zu sehen ist diese seit Mitte Oktober bei Amazon Freevee. Jedoch noch nicht in Deutschland.

 

Aber deutsche Fans des kanadischen Duos müssen keine Tränen vergießen, denn sie können sich mit „Crybaby“, deren zehnten Studioalbum vertrösten. 

Die 12 Lieder wurden gemeinsam mit dem Produzten John Congleton (The Killers, Angel Olsen, Sharon Van Etten, Alvvays, Death Cab For Cutie) aufgenommen und sind das erste wirklich neue Material von Tagan And Sara seit „Love You To Dearth“ (2016).

Wenn der Großteil der süßlichen, quirligen Pop-Songs der Eiscreme auf dem Plattencover entspricht, dann werden die wenige und dezenten Ausflüge in Richtung Rock und Punk wohl durch die Klinge symbolisiert. 

Passend dazu erscheint die Schallplatte als Vanilla Opaque Vinyl, Orange Sherbet Vinyl und Neapolitan (Brown/White/Pink) Vinyl.

Tegan and Sara believe they never make the same record twice. While Crybaby is its own project and holds its own ground in their discography, remnants of previous eras of the duo are heard throughout, contributing to its nostalgic quality for longtime listeners. The lead single “Fucking Up What Matters” sounds like it could have been, in another life, included on 2004’s So Jealous, just with less mainstream hooks. Likewise, “Yellow” could’ve been part of Heartthrob, and any number of other tracks like “I Can’t Grow Up”, “Smoking Weed Alone”, “This Ain’t Going Well”, or “Sometimes I See Stars”, could have been from the resurrected high school era of Hey, I’m Just Like You. But they’re not: they exist as their own separate body of work on Crybaby and remind listeners of how far they’ve come as a group, as it’s the album’s biggest strength.

(PopMatters)

It jumps from angst-y, punky anthems ("Fucking Up What Matters") to rollicking pop full of yearning and pain ("Smoking Weed Alone'") sweetly sings through the heartache ("Faded Like a Feeling,") gets big and glossy ("Under My Control"), and swerves into jumpy new wave quirkiness ("I'm Okay.") Every song sounds like an alternate world hit single; a few of them are the equal of anything T&S have done yet. "Pretty Shitty Time" is an amazing propulsive track that somehow turns having an awful time into a loop-filled, sad EDM banger; "I Can't Grow Up" is a mature take on punk-pop that folds in vocal effects, swaths of synths, and some truly impassioned vocals courtesy of Tegan at her fieriest, and a classic Sara ballad ("All I Wanted") that somehow makes a corny drum loop sound good. Must be the beauty of the melody and the restrained passion. Maybe the best song -- and one destined for a career-spanning greatest-hits set -- is "Yellow." It's a big and bold ballad, sort of a distant relative of the Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony" but with very personal lyrics and the kind of chorus that sneaks back into your brain over and over for days, maybe even weeks. Like the rest of the record, it's mature music played with the energy and passion of youth, full of experience and tenderness but never complacent. It's no wonder that the duo have inspired so much devotion: They have never lost the inspiration behind their music and Crybaby is one more shining example of that.

(All Music)