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Hey Sorry State readers! I hope you’re doing well. I don’t get out much, but I just read that we’re supposed to get some tropical cyclone type shit here in Raleigh? I hope I’m wrong because it sounds a bit dramatic to me. Time will tell.
On to the music. I’m doing something different this week. When I was listing albums on our Discogs site, I was sifting through some boxes of records and I came across Tegan and Sara’s Hey I’m Just Like You. Side note: this album is available to buy from our Discogs site. It’s a damn fine looking and sounding copy with the printed lyric sleeve, just saying. Moving on…
Anyway, I can’t say I know a ton from Tegan and Sara, but I like a few albums, and this is one of them. It’s their NINTH studio album. With this one, I think the sister duo made a really smart and timely move by re-recording demos of songs they had written back when they were teenagers and admittedly had a Kurt Cobain shrine. I have a Kurt Cobain shrine too. I call it “my record collection” and it’s one expensive fucking shrine.
So on this album, you can certainly hear their teenage hearts starting to realize that life can be kind of shit, but they aren’t quite at the point where they know life can be really shit. It’s cool to hear these coming of age songs re-recorded through the lens of experience and wisdom the band has acquired over a couple decades. I imagine it’s like going back and reading your teenage diary and making it sound less cringe. The thing about Tegan and Sara is that I always longed for a much more angsty sound, but angsty doesn’t always have to sound angry. That’s something that took me a long time to realize.
It’s interesting to listen now to the music they made as teens, knowing that they were holding in so much about their sexuality and how they felt about it. On songs like Don’t Believe the Things They Tell You (They Lie), they figure out that the cliche things your parents tell you when you’re young to make you feel better may not actually apply to you. Sara wrote that particular song in the late 90s when she was 15 and going through a period of self-hatred. If that wasn’t a theme of adolescence in the 90s, I don’t know what was. But, good news, I guess revisiting that period of time captured in those songs (while re-recording these demos) was actually really healing for Sara. I don’t know anything about writing music, but when I forced myself to read my high school diaries, it was not therapeutic whatsoever. It was more like “holy shit, you’re the same person, but just… older.”
Please Help Me is a favorite track on this album. Call me crazy or call me 100% correct, but I’d be very surprised if Taylor Swift didn’t listen to a lot of Tegan and Sara as she was doing the indie girl transition. Hold My Breath Until I Die is another good one. It has an unexpected, yet subtle, Stevie Nicks/Fleetwood Mac feel to it. It may be the most mature sounding track on the record.
Yes, the music sounds like teenagers wrote it, because teenagers wrote it. Even if it’s been re-recorded. I think it’s a pretty brave thing to do to go back 20 years and work with that music again, because they weren’t just making their old music sound better. They were also revisiting the pain and confusion embedded in that music. Hot damn, is this a case study or a staff pick? Told you I was going down a different road today. It’s called Existential Crisis Avenue.
All in all, it’s a pretty cohesive poppy record with some nice synthy choruses. It’s a pleasant listen, and oddly nostalgic. Which makes no sense because this wasn’t my vibe growing up. If my mom didn’t bust into my room with a worried look on her face before telling me to “turn that crap down,” it wasn’t on my playlist. However, one nice thing about getting older is going back to music you discarded or overlooked, and discovering you kinda like it now.
But really, someone should buy it on our Discogs. It’s looks and plays great. It’s aesthetically pleasing (which is what drew me in in the first place) with its high contrast black and white art work, and matte textured jacket. I will also write you a special note when I fill your order.
Thanks for reading! See you next week!
-Angela