Tegan and Sara - Hey, I'm Just Like You review: Relived childhood drama lacks quality

Back to their roots: Tegan and Sara
David Smyth27 September 2019

It was obvious that Canadian twins Tegan and Sara Quin were closely in touch with their respective inner children when they sang Everything Is Awesome for The Lego Movie. Even so, their latest move is a surprise.

The 39-year-olds have unearthed cassettes of songs they wrote when they were aged between 15 and 17, and rerecorded them to make their ninth album. It’s an unusual but fittingly atmospheric companion piece to their memoir, High School, also published this week, in which they take turns to write chapters recalling their formative years.

Although the songs are sung by grown women, with the shiny pop production values of their most recent albums, you can hear the childhood drama in titles such as Hold My Breath Until I Die and the plainly articulated confusion of the lyric: “I don’t love you at all but I do love you.”

It’s also a retreat to their indie roots, with guitars more prominent than they have been since their 2009 album, Sainthood. They chug along merrily on fun single I’ll Be Back Someday, while acoustic guitars dominate the unfussy ballads I Don’t Owe You Anything and Please Help Me.

It’s not clear how much of an edit the songs were given after their discovery but they’re far better than the scrappy material the duo put on their first two albums, Under Feet Like Ours in 1999 and This Business of Art in 2000. However, though the album has curiosity value for long-term fans, it does feel like a backwards step in quality as well as in spirit.

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