Tegan and Sara Quinn know all the right people. Their debut album is released on Neil Young’s Vapor label and they’ve toured in support of Ryan Adams. In truth, they have little in common musically with either of them, and If It Was You is a collection of energetic girl-pop full of surging melodies, VH1-friendly hooks and a fashionable punkiness (one song is called “Want To Be Bad”) that sounds more like Madonna’s discovery Michelle Branch or a grown-up version of Avril Lavigne. They have a more intimate side, heard on “Don’t Confess”and the banjo-laden “Living Room”, which sounds a little like the Be Good Tanyas gone pop. But mostly it’s unashamedly upbeat. And all the more welcome for that.
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