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Jun 03, 2016 Web Exclusive By Austin Trunick

There were no doubt a few fans out there put off by Tegan and Sara‘s nosedive into slickly-produced pop music with 2013’s mainstream breakout, Heartthrob—what with its radio-friendly singles which found the Sisters Quin cracking the Hot 100 for the first time in their two-decade career. (Not to mention their Lego Movie theme, “Everything is Awesome,” which won over the tween birthday party crowd.) Some viewed the pop-ification of their sound as pandering to the masses—or “selling out,” for anyone who still insists on using that outdated, increasingly meaningless term—while others, willing to step back and look from a broader vantage point, saw the music as a polished version of the hook-savvy songcraft they’ve been honing since their humble beginnings.

If you fall into the former, pop-averse subset of readers, well, you’ll probably hate Love You to Death even more than their last one. Everyone else, though, will find at least three absolutely brilliant singles chained together by agreeable, if not knockout tunes. “Boyfriend” is fine piece of big-synth dance pop and picks up right where “Closer” left off. The ballad, “100X,” is even better, destined to soundtrack many world-shaking teenage breakups this summer. The record’s nucleus, though, is the ridiculously fun “U-Turn,” an upbeat, catchy track with a killer synth groove-a massive ‘80s hit, just 30 years too late. Love You‘s sticky problem is the same one that plagues all but the Thriller/Purple Rain-iest of pop records, and it’s that everything that comes between the hits sounds like filler in comparison. Not that tracks such as “Faint of Heart” and “B/W/U” are bad; you’ll just have a hard time recalling them while you’re humming “U-Turn” until your brain turns to mush. One thing’s for sure: Tegan and Sara are setting themselves up for one knockout of a greatest hits album. (www.teganandsara.com)

Author rating: 6/10