“Back In Your Head” doesn’t seem like the song that would be first single material, but it’s a bouncy bit of synth pop, first starting with an energetic bass line and piano and then incorporating those bubbly synths feeling like a proto version of Grime’s “Oblivion.” And once again it’s those sneaky subtle hooks, they way Sara drawls out the word “head” or her declaration “I’m not unfaithful, but I’ll stray” that will stick to your brain for days to come. However the ones that are there, they pack a punch, like when they sing “Well nobody likes to, but I really like to cry.” It’s the sort of lyric delivery that can be almost laugh inducing without the proper weight and sincerity to it and the Quin sisters nail it. “The Con” like many songs on the album details with those relationship lows and while the songs being more pop oriented aren’t oozing with hooks. The turmoil and uncertainty finds its way into the music, seeping into both the sound and the lyrics, fitting as Tegan has said there is “blood all over the record.” Title track “The Con” introduces the new poppier Tegan and Sara perfectly, starting with that off kilter acoustic guitar strumming, the twins go into their layered vocals that come up so often and yet never ever get boring through the albums brief 36 minute run.
Tegan had just exited a five year relationship, Sara was struggling with Canadian immigration to get a work visa for her American born girlfriend and both had recently lost their grandmother who had been a parental figure when they were growing. Produced by Death Cab for Cutie’s Chris Walla The Con represents not only a flux in the twins style but also their lives. The Con can be seen as a mid way point in Tegan and Sara’s career, the transition from their previous more singer songwriter acoustic past and their future as synthy electronic popsters guilty of the one of the most indelible earworms of all time. The Con hit a nerve with the public, critics be damned, and its sound reverberates to this day. It matches the Quin sisters themselves, notoriously shy and somewhat standoffish even with each other (I don’t think I’ve seen an interview with the sisters where they don’t mention how they don’t spend a lot of time with each other these days.) However as subtle as this album is in the years after it the influence is incredibly apparent, ranging from the extremely confessional mainstream pop of artists like Lorde or Alessia Cara to taking the punk/emo elements of DIY indie pop in artists like Sky Ferreira or Chairlift. In a lot of ways The Con is just as innocuous an album, the sort of early 2000’s platonic ideal of “Ready for the OC soundtrack” Emo Pop mixed with 80’s New Wave but done in such a subdued and organic manner that it doesn’t come off as nearly flashy as that mashup sounds.
TEGAN AND SARA THE CON MAC
If you had told me in 2012 that Mac DeMarco’s album would be the biggest force in indie rock this decade I would’ve laughed at you but here we are now in 2019 with a bunch of oversized sweater wearing saddoes lazily singing in their bedrooms. I’m getting off track with my original point here, being that, time is the ultimate litmus test of how important an album is. Of course they then go on to trash them by stating “The edgiest thing about the sisters Quin continues to be their haircuts.” NME in the harshest review of the album called the duo “little more than twin airbags” and far too many reviews go on about the lack of clear queer struggles presented on the album, because clearly that’s the only thing the duo could sing about, right?
TEGAN AND SARA THE CON SERIES
Pitchfork in a particularly sickening series of words thought that stating on The Con “Tegan and Sara should no longer be mistaken for tampon rock” would be an apt descriptor of the album AND compliment to their maturing sound.
Even if in 2007 when this album was released it was well received for the most part most but praise didn’t go beyond “this is fine pop music.” Worst of all though were the more negative reviews that seemed to pigeonhole the duo and punish them for it, as if the fact that they were queer twin sisters was some sort of “gimmick” for critics to lampoon rather than look past it and focus on the music. If I had to point to a reason why the “five year rule” (for those who don’t know: for me to consider an album for the Canon it must be at least five years old) Tegan and Sara’s The Con would be one of the prime examples. The Canadian Indie Rock Canon #55: Tegan and Sara – The Con
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