TWIN SISTER – In Heaven (Part 2)

On the song “Saturday Sunday,” lead singer Andrea Estella and guitarist Eric Cardona trade back and forth in the refrain, “Saturday.” “No, Sunday.” Natalie would like to offer a third option: “Not on this album.” She then wonders if she’s narrow-minded because she can’t totally get into the album’s nu-wave spaghetti-western dance tracks.

Twin Sister – “Bad Street”

From: Natalie Snoyman
To: Brandon Hall

You know, I had to remind myself that the band who released In Heaven is the same band who released Vampires With Dreaming Kids. With the exception of “Ginger,” I would be tempted to say that these albums were released by two different bands. Okay, that may be a little extreme. But Twin Sister’s newest release feels like quite a departure from that first EP. This isn’t a bad thing. Not in the least! I love it when bands can change their sound somewhat dramatically yet remain so appealing at the same time.

And, as you aptly pointed out, Twin Sister not only manages to do this from one album to the next, but they’ve done it on one single release! Once you pointed out the “twin tracks” (Twin Sisters? Heyo!), it was impossible for me to not hear the rest of the album that way. I think you’re spot-on with the exception of the last two tracks. “Saturday Sunday” seems so lost on this album whereas “Eastern Green,” its so-called “twin track” feels right at home. In fact, “Saturday Sunday” reminds me a lot of Stereolab, a band that would surely make it onto a favorites list if I was prone to making them. I’ve listened to the album several times now — did you know In Heaven is the perfect record to listen to when packing sketches into Hollinger boxes? — and I still can’t get into this track.

Upon first listen, “Spain” and “Gene Ciampi” also baffled me but I’ve come to embrace them… mostly, anyway. While “Kimmi in a Rice Field” makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside (total Sixteen Candles moment), “Daniel” is the track that really does it for me on this album. The celestial and sweet instrumentation is the perfect accompaniment to Andrea Estella’s somewhat quirky voice and I can’t, for the life of me, get the chorus out of my head. Speaking of vocals, I’m not a huge fan of the tracks featuring both Eric and Andrea. Perhaps it’s because Estella’s voice is so unique that next to Cardona’s comparatively smooth vocals, the two together sometimes feel a little jarring. I think this is most apparent on “Stop.” I am, however, a pretty big fan of “Luna’s Theme” and I think their voices work so incredibly well together on this track. What about you? Have you hopped onto one side of the fence yet?

The more I play this album, the more I find myself repeating the first six tracks over and over. I feel the four subsequent tracks, while ambitious and mostly enjoyable, don’t play on the band’s strengths. I wonder if this is because the first six tracks sound more like other Twin Sister releases. Am I that narrow-minded?!

“Big hands. Big feet,”

Natalie