Tegan and Sara - Still Jealous (LP)

Still Jealous landed in February 2022 as a quiet curveball from Tegan and Sara, a full reimagining of their 2004 breakthrough So Jealous that asks a simple question: what happens when each twin takes on the other’s songs and strips them back to the bones. It sounds like a novelty on paper, but the result is deceptively moving. With the arrangements pared down to voice, guitar, a bit of piano and subtle percussion, the writing carries the whole record. You hear the melodies breathe. You hear the bite and the ache that sometimes hid behind the nervy pop sparkle of the original.

That original era is loaded with context. So Jealous was the record that pushed the duo from cult favourites to the wider world, with “Walking with a Ghost” turning into an indie touchstone and, soon after, a 2005 cover by The White Stripes that blasted it into even more ears. “Where Does the Good Go” found its way onto Grey’s Anatomy in the mid 2000s and became a fan staple. Still Jealous looks back at that moment with clarity and a bit of tenderness. The swap of vocal leads reshuffles the emotional deck, so a song you used to associate with one sister is now shaded by the other’s phrasing and tone. It is a clever way to trace their shared authorship, and it lands because the performances are so unguarded.

“Walking with a Ghost” is the gut-check. Slowed and hushed, it lifts the chant-like hook into something almost devotional, closer to a memory than a radio hit. The lyric always felt like a looped thought you can’t escape, and here that tension is the point, every pause full of air and second guessing. “Speak Slow” loses the spiky guitars and becomes a low-lit confessional, a reminder that the song’s sharp edges were always emotional first and sonic second. “Where Does the Good Go” turns introspection into a presence you can sit with, the kind of track that makes you pay attention to consonants and room tone. When they let harmonies creep in, it’s like watching a scene gain colour.

What stands out most is how the rework reframes the writing, which has long been Tegan and Sara’s secret weapon. Without big-band decoration, you catch the craft in the chord turns, the way choruses arrive just a hair earlier than expected, the conversational specificity of their lyrics. A song like “You Wouldn’t Like Me” becomes almost diaristic in this setting. “I Know I Know I Know” settles into a tired, resilient rhythm that suits the title. Nothing here feels dashed off. It feels considered, and it respects the memory fans have of these tracks while giving them a second life.

The timing made sense too. Released eighteen years after So Jealous, it sits alongside the duo’s long look back that included the So Jealous X anniversary project, plus years of touring where these songs changed shape from stage to stage. You can hear that road wisdom baked in. The guitar voicings are economical, the tempos unhurried. They trust the songs. And they trust listeners to come closer.

If you’re a vinyl tragic, Still Jealous is a lovely listen on the format. The space around the vocals, the soft pick noise against steel strings, the little breaths between lines, all of it sits warmly in the grooves. You can hunt down Still Jealous vinyl alongside earlier Tegan and Sara albums on vinyl and you’ll get a neat A and B experience, like two photographs of the same street taken years apart. I’ve seen copies float through more than one Melbourne record store, and if you prefer to buy Tegan and Sara records online, it’s not a tough find. For folks building a shelf that tells a story, it pairs well with So Jealous, then jumps forward to Heartthrob to show the range they’ve covered.

Reworks can feel like victory laps, but this one plays more like a quiet conversation between past and present. The critical chatter at the time picked up on that, with reviewers noting how the stripped treatment puts the spotlight squarely on their voices and the writing that got them here in the first place. That rings true on every cut. If the original So Jealous was the sound of momentum, Still Jealous is the sound of perspective. It is a gift to fans who grew up with these songs and a neat entry point for anyone discovering Tegan and Sara vinyl for the first time. Either way, it rewards a late-night spin, especially for those of us in vinyl records Australia land who like our nostalgia with a fresh coat of honesty.