Tegan And Sara: The Con

On The Con's title track, for example, the Quin sisters sing in unison over an acoustic opening—Sara lagging a fraction behind Tegan, who wrote the song—and once the song breaks into an electric roar, it becomes clear that the vocals are a little off the beat. Eventually the song coheres over the chorus, in a moment of ecstatic release. Throughout The Con, songs like "Knife Going In" and "Like O, Like H" tick along like a room full of malfunctioning clocks, while Tegan And Sara follow their own swaggering pace.

Beneath the aggressive sound, both Quins maintain a sense of intimacy and personal exposure in their lyrics, right down to the final kiss-off song "Call It Off," in which Tegan tells her ex, "Maybe I would've been something you'd be good at." The Con is maybe too self-obsessed, and Tegan And Sara fall back into some bad habits in the middle of the record. But lyrical wallowing is almost a required element for this genre, and ultimately even The Con's failings work in its favor, providing a macro version of what the best Tegan And Sara songs do, by stumbling along recklessly, then falling together.