Tegan and Sara’s ‘Love You To Death’ Is A Queer Pop Utopia

Image: Tegan and Sara

Bands rarely reinvent themselves on their seventh album, but on 2013’s

Heartthrob

,

Tegan and Sara

gambled on pop music — and it paid off many times over. As an indie duo, the Quin sisters were a curiosity, as recognisable for being out lesbians with mullets as for their music. They and their unusually devoted fanbase had more in common with pop-punk and emo than the white male indie rock of the 2000s. But in 2016, they stand out for all the right reasons.

Heartthrob

became — totally by accident — a touchstone within chart pop, directly influencing Taylor Swift’s

and Carly Rae Jepsen’s

E•MO•TION

.

Love You to Death

isn’t another reinvention, but it’s anything but formulaic.

Fear not, Tegan and Sara are as queer as they’ve ever been — they’re just voicing it in different ways. In the past, they’d write about their relationships with women using gender-neutral pronouns, but “Boyfriend” brings it all out into the open. “You turn me on like you want your boyfriend / But I don’t want to be your secret anymore”, sings Sara, addressing a lover who’s struggling to acknowledge her first lesbian relationship. The sentiment’s familiar, but nothing else on the radio is this explicitly queer.

GQ

spent half a recent interview justifying how straight men can relate to “Boyfriend”, but goofy as it was, it’s a sign of cultural progress. The best pop songs aren’t anonymous and pandering; they’re so vivid they feel universal.

We’re over halfway through the 2010s, and the

80s revival

has lasted longer than the actual 80s. But Tegan and Sara aren’t just cosplaying as new romantics — they’re using new wave’s sonic palette to tell stories they’ve never told before. Few genres evoke wonder and melody like synthpop, and most of

Love You to Death

, too, is about being caught between emotional states.

On “That Girl”, the opening track, Tegan and Sara sing like only identical twins can — about treating each other so badly they don’t even recognise themselves. Through rollercoaster highs — “Faint of Heart”, “Stop Desire” — and cruel lows — “White Knuckles”, “100x” — they relive the pivotal last few years of their lives, and emerge with a sense of closure. “U-turn” is an ode to unconditional love, and a mission statement for Tegan and Sara in 2016. Instead of wallowing in the past, they’re redefining themselves for the better.

But outside the album, not everything’s as convincing. The cutesy videos for

“U-turn”

and

“100x”

want to be GIF-able, but they sell the songs’ emotions short. And performing

“Boyfriend”

on

The Tonight Show

, both Tegan and Sara are too reserved to really connect with the audience. You don’t hear those limitations on record, but live, it’s apparent: the same introversion that makes them great songwriters holds them back as popstars.

Tegan and Sara aren’t alone in that. There’ve never been more indie-leaning acts doing pop on their own terms — Grimes, Chairlift, Purity Ring, CHVRCHES — but it still feels like there’s a glass ceiling between them and household-name popstars. The DIY indie-synth ethos hasn’t produced a Beyoncé, a Rihanna, not even a Selena Gomez.

Does it matter? There’s no correlation between celebrity and artistry. But great pop music, more than any other genre, demands to be heard by as many people as possible. Can Tegan and Sara truly cross over? Can they move beyond guest spots with Taylor Swift and

Katy Perry

, and headline arenas on their own? They have as good a chance as anyone — if not on the size of their personalities, on the strength of their songs.

Tegan and Sara are living proof that it can get better — their personal lives, their art, even the culture at large. They’re still queer icons, but their narrative doesn’t end within queer culture. While

“indie rock”

remains a niche, pop music’s matured alongside them. By embracing pop, they’re finally getting the credit they deserve as musicians, songwriters, even

menswear icons

. The Quin sisters continue to redefine themselves at 35, and so can we. Tegan and Sara didn’t sell out. Everyone else is buying in.

‘Love You to Death’ is available now.

Richard S. He is an award-winning pop culture critic. People still don’t take him seriously. He tweets at @Richaod.