Monday, May 10, 2010

Tegan And Sara - So Jealous

Tegan and Sara is a rare act that finds itself easily able to coast through a wide field of listeners. From angsty, Twilight-worshiping tweens to bitter 20-somethings who weep over every "Grey’s Anatomy" episode, and even to my best friends father, Tegan and Sara seem to have struck chord on a number of listener layers. I must admit that I am, in fact, an avid listener of the Canadian sisters, especially to their 2004 album So Jealous. That being said, don’t count on catching me wearing a "Twilight" shirt or watching "Grey’s Anatomy" any time soon.

Released on September 14, 2004, So Jealous tunes immediately made other tracks, unsurprisingly, so jealous with their cameos in the backgrounds of sappy love scenes (see: “I Know I Know I Know”) and bitter breakups (see: “Where Does the Good Go?”) on TV channels like ABC and the CW. As always, though, there’s a face to the music, and I’m assuming few were surprised when they saw the art for the LP on iTunes when Gilmore Girls was over.

The cover is presented in the same simplistic, arts-and-crafts sort of style as the music itself. Slated against a cheerless black background are a small cluster of floating hearts which, upon closer examination, almost appear to be cut straight out of red felt. Then, of course, there are the stark white, sans-serif album and artist titles in the top right corner, both ever-so-slightly offset from the image.

If you listen to Tegan and Sara regularly and are familiar with their work, then this album cover should be of no surprise and even, perhaps, sum up their musical front in a single, artistic image. Even the color combination — black, white and red — evokes the same feel that their music on So Jealous attempts — and, in many ways, succeeds — to present.

Some may view Tegan and Sara as another example of over-dramatic, whiny, indie Canadian pop music. I’d have to argue that they present an angle to the music industry that many try to achieve but can’t pull off. That is, the artsy-fartsy, lesbian, balls-kicking music for which they have paved the way. The cover art for So Jealous is a good representation of the duo and their band as a whole, not just of the album at hand.


Image source: Wikipedia

1 comment:

  1. Very interesting blog! I'm surprised you don't have more of a following.
    Then again, I am sort of an art nerd who tends to analyze things like this too!

    -Brittany
    @ brittanythings.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete