''Hey, I'm Just Like You'' is the ninth studio album by Canadian

indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with a DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and s ...

duo

Tegan and Sara Tegan and Sara () are a Canadian indie pop duo formed in 1998 in Calgary, Alberta. The band is led by identical twin sisters, Tegan Rain Quin and Sara Keirsten Quin (born September 19, 1980). Both musicians are songwriters and multi-instrumentali ...

, released via

Sire Records Sire Records (formerly Sire Records Company) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Records. History Beginnings The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gotteh ...

on September 27, 2019. The album contains re-recordings of unreleased demo songs that the duo recorded as teenagers, and marks a partial return to their original

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

-influenced sound. The lead single, "I'll Be Back Someday", was released on July 25, 2019. The second single "Don't Believe the Things They Tell You (They Lie)" was released on September 20, 2019. It was released three days after the publication of their memoir, ''

High School A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

''. Upon release, the album received generally favorable reviews.

Background

While working on their memoir ''

'', the duo found dozens of cassette recordings of songs they wrote between the ages of 15 and 17. From April 2019, they began rewriting parts of the lyrics but kept the "essence" of each song, and said: "This is the record we never could have made as teenagers, full of songs we never could have written as adults." With the announcement, the duo said the album would contain elements of their "rock and punk roots, with a punch of pop production", and that it is their first album "produced, performed, engineered, mixed, and mastered by a team of all women".

Promotion

Tegan and Sara announced the album on July 9, with a trailer showing home videos of themselves as teenagers playing guitar mixed with new footage of them working on the new versions of the songs. On July 22, the first single from the album, "I'll Be Back Someday", was announced. It was released on July 25. The second single released was the title track, on September 6, along with a lyric video consisting of footage of the two as teenagers. A tour in support of the album and their memoir ''

'' was announced on July 24. It will consist of largely acoustic renditions of songs from the album, as well as older songs and clips of the two in high school.

Reception

''Hey, I'm Just Like You'' was met with generally favorable reviews noted at review aggregator

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

. The album received a weighted average score of 75 out of 100 based on 14 critic reviews. Aimee Cliff, writing for ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

'', gave the album a score of 7.1 out of 10, describing the songs as "poignant synth-pop gems". ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' described the release as "the prequel to a gratifying coming-of-age story about pop girlhood". Rachel Aroesti of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' was less positive, calling the song titles "laughably melodramatic", and criticizing the "workaday synth" genre which "struggles to make much of an impact based purely on its sonic appeal".

Track listing

All tracks produced by Alex Hope. All tracks written by Tegan Quin and

Sara Quin Tegan and Sara () are a Canadian indie pop duo formed in 1998 in Calgary, Alberta. The band is led by identical twin sisters, Tegan Rain Quin and Sara Keirsten Quin (born September 19, 1980). Both musicians are songwriters and multi-instrumentali ...

, except where noted.

Personnel

Musicians

* Tegan Quin – vocals, guitar * Sara Quin – vocals, guitar, glockenspiel * Alex Hope – guitar, keyboards, piano, synths, programming, backing vocals *

Carla Azar Carla Azar (June 15, 1972) is an American drummer from Huntsville, Alabama and member of the band Autolux. She also plays guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, and sings. Azar played drums on Jack White's albums ''Blunderbuss'', ''Lazaretto'', and ' ...

– drums * Catherine Hiltz – bass

Production

* Alex Hope – producer * Rachael Findlen – engineer * Beatriz Artola – mixing *

Emily Lazar Emily B. Lazar is an American mastering engineer. She is the founder, president, and chief mastering engineer of The Lodge, an audio mastering facility that has operated in New York City's Greenwich Village since 1997. She won a Grammy Award for ...

– mastering * Annie Kennedy – assistant engineer

Design

Emy Storey Emily "Emy" Storey (born March 31, 1981) is a Montreal-based art director, graphic designer and illustrator. Born in Kinderhook, New York, Storey moved to Montreal to study Design Art at Concordia University, where she received her Fine Arts degre ...

– art direction * Trevor Brady – photography

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2019 albums Albums produced by Alex Hope (songwriter) Tegan and Sara albums