Tegan and Sara, Northern State

Even if the age of digital downloads has left album artwork all but ignored, a meaningful theme still sprouts from the title and design of Tegan and Sara's most recent release, The Con. The novelistic motif inspired by the album's Moog-infused title track provides a reference for the twin sisters' lyrical preoccupations and storytime live show. Known for conveying ever-evolving anecdotes between indie-pop jams at concerts, Tegan and Sara (they write separately) put no less effort into the first-person narratives they so charmingly harmonize together in song. The sisters' newest tunes speak for themselves—the proof is between the stylized pages of the lyric booklet.