Tegan and Sara’s new album, “Love You to Death,” won’t be the one taking them out of the 5,500-seat Theater at Madison Square Garden — where they’re playing in November — and into the 19,500-seat main arena upstairs. It wants to be fluffy synth-pop but doesn’t fully commit to the genre’s necessary big choruses and goofy futility.
Too bad, because the Canadian lesbian twins, 35, were on a roll. In 2013, they moved away from their indie-rock roots and finally cracked the Hot 100 with the gleaming “Closer,” from their seventh album, “Heartthrob.” That song was so good, Taylor Swift invited the sisters to sing it with her live that August in Los Angeles, anointing them as members of her celeb posse.
They kept up the momentum as openers for Katy Perry’s 2014 tour, then made it to prime time with their 2015 Oscars performance of “Everything Is Awesome!!!” from “The Lego Movie.”
T&S even traded their nondescript wardrobe for stylish tailored suits and funky footwear at shows and in photo shoots.
But “Love You to Death” won’t take them to world domination. T&S’s “dear diary” lyrics are charming in clubs, but don’t work well in big spaces, and as glossy as the record sounds — producer Greg Kurstin also worked on Adele’s “25” — it lacks mega hooks.
The best example is “Boyfriend,” which is basically written from the point of view of the cherry-ChapSticked victim of Perry’s experiment in “I Kissed a Girl.” It’s a nifty reversal, and the verse is slinky, but the song cries for an expansive “screw you!” moment that never comes.
Restraint just doesn’t pay when it comes to big pop.