Now they seem to be going for the latter.

Tegan & Sara were in an interesting position of having entered the music world during a time of flux, so their pop-stardom was acquired in a new way over the years they’ve reached the masses via LiveJournal communities, message boards, and obsessive Tumblrs, rather than top-40 radio. The backbone of Tegan & Sara songs, whether made with guitars or synths, has always been their huge, hyper-emotional choruses and themes of heartbreak, longing, distance, emotional trauma, and recovery. Pop songs are supposed to be highly listenable, with big hooks and mass appeal, and those qualities are all over So Jealous and If It Was You, as well as the the album that followed those, The Con. To some it may feel like a drastic change, but to an extent, Tegan & Sara have always seemed like pop stars. Tegan has even said the album’s opening track, “Closer,” was inspired by mid-’90s dance music like Erasure and Ace Of Base. They’ve noted that on this new album, they wanted the songs to sound like Cyndi Lauper and Madonna. They’ve gone through various phases, but with their new album they’re testing the limits of that fanbase. “I’ve always struggled more with the idea that we are being held to a certain type of sound or certain type of style,” Sara told the Fader in an interview last year. It’s understandable that the band would feel conflicted at this point in their career: Artistically, they’re ready to move on from alt-folk confessionals but when the kids like what you’re doing so much, how can you change? With the success of their third and fourth albums, If It Was You and So Jealous - which contain some of the best songs in the band’s catalog - Tegan & Sara began to develop the obsessive teenage fanbase they are now known for.

(With a title like that, its no wonder they’ve spent a sizable amount of time throughout their career commenting on and attempting to maneuver the intricacies of the crumbling old-school music industry.) After their first proper album, Under Feet Like Ours, they were picked up by Neil Young’s label, Vapor Records for their sophomore album, The Business Of Art. At 18, Tegan & Sara toured by car and Greyhound bus, playing songs from their first few demo tapes.

The 32-year-old twins from Canada have been releasing records of folk-inflicted guitar-pop since high school, developing a mythology of sorts amongst their cult fanbase. The story of Tegan and Sara Quin barely needs explaining, but carries extra weight in the context of this new album. pop producer Greg Kurstin (P!nk, Kelly Clarkson, Ke$ha), and it finds the duo shooting for straight-up pop stardom.

Released January 29, Heartthrob was recorded with L.A. It is a substantial change of directions, yet foreseeable to anyone who picked up on their collaborations with the likes of Tiesto and David Guetta in recent years, or the albums of remixes released in the past few years for their both “Alligator” and “Back in Your Head”. It’s the seventh album from sisters Tegan and Sara Quin, yet their first to deal exclusively in dance-centric electro-pop with huge beats and bass. Heartthrob is the new album by Tegan & Sara, an aptly named endeavor for a band whose strongest songs have always dealt with matters of the heart.

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