Cue the eye roll when you hear everyone’s favorite slightly emo, girl power indie band has turned the synthpop route...just like everyone else, it seems, and to mixed effect. Tegan and Sara’s new album “Heartthrob” sounds like normal Tegan and Sara, but with the volume turned up. If older hits like “Back in Your Head” could be played on an upright piano a lá Michelle Branch, these songs would only work on a keyboard. They’re more cinematic—more synth and bass-heavy—than their predecessors, but the themes of heartache and angst and girl problems stay more or less the same, albeit with less lyrical punch. It seems our favorite sisters have discarded their guitars and angsty one-liners for a heavy-handed producer and slightly more radio time.
Grade: B
Sounds best when: Dancing in your underwear, flippin’ yo hair 99 cent download: “Closer”
