This Business of Art

(Vapor Records)

Tegan and Sara are Canada’s best kept secret. From the first line, they come jumping out of your speakers with their edgy acoustic guitars and intense, hip lyrics and attitude that could teach musicians twice their age something. Because they’re only 20, they’ve been touring and playing for several years. And this, their debut album on Vapor Records, bodes very, very well for the twins from Calgary, Alberta.

Girls playing guitars...the comparisons are easy to make: fans of Ani DiFranco and The Indigo Girls will not be displeased. There are times when they sound a little like PJ Harvey’s Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea too. But the mix of folk, rap, driving acoustic guitars and the perfectly paired voices is something no one else can match. The first track on This Business (called, appropriately enough, “The First”) is a ball-grabbing, attention-snatching coming of age cut that includes lyrics about how, “They go from kindergarten to killing sprees/They go from heartache to inner peace.” It’s heady, sometimes scary stuff.

The album also includes some beautiful, jangly, almost poppy songs, though never losing the bite that sets them apart from the bubblegum variety. “My Number” might have been simply a love song, only Tegan keeps on telling you, “It’s a silly time to learn to swim when you start to drown.” The lyrics are savvy and young at the same time, a rare and precious mix. The story is that their live act has more attitude than Bono in a sunglass store, and I can believe it. They’re playing Paradise May 18. Sounds like a great way to ring in exams to me.

—Andrew R. Iliff