Send "Twin Sister " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 When Long Island's Twin Sister put a picture of a shabbily decorated dollhouse on the cover of their 2010 Color Your Life EP, it seemed like a mission statement: Here is small, intimate music meant to feel comfy and lived-in. And from the pillowy indie-pop numbers to the more stretched-out, soft drone pieces, it was the kind of record that just felt nice to hear. You wanted to cuddle up with it. But then there was "All Around and Away We Go", the slice-of-genius, introverted disco gem that suggested there was more to these guys than just pretty bedroom pop. In Heaven, their debut LP, very much supports that idea. It's a crisp-sounding, nuanced album that highlights all the right things about the band.The most obvious difference between In Heaven and Twin Sister's two previous EPs is that they've cleaned up their sound and tightened their arrangements considerably. Where individual sounds sometimes used to get swallowed in an underlying hiss, instruments now have room to breathe. Guitars sparkle, synthetic drumbeats strike with purpose, and singer Andrea Estella's charming vocal squeak is closer to the fore. Increasing the production value is more than just a technical upgrade-- it lets the band open up creatively and try different kinds of new sounds. And they do that with grace. From Stereolab-like lounge-pop to R&B-flecked Young Marble Giants minimalism, these guys run the gamut. While the sonic palette is definitely a lot wider, Twin Sister still keep the songwriting focus small and detailed. More interested in documenting life's minor moments than the big, transformative ones, they sing about things like recommending movies to friends or having an awkward crush go unspoken. Little stuff, but meaningful in its way. Take "Stop", for example, a track breathily sung by guitarist Eric Cardona and featuring a sultry R&B thump. It reads heavy romance on first listen, but that's actually not the case. "I keep telling myself to stop, to feel if I like it," Cardona sings, describing a new relationship he's trying to be responsible about. It seems he doesn't want to rush into sleeping with this person-- someone's feelings could get hurt that way....full text |
| Bbc |
| Twin Sister’s star-bright melodies and honeyed harmonies; front lady Andrea Estella’s wistful sighing and indie-as-a-pin-badge bangs; the band’s washed-out vintage-styled press photos and general surface-level chirpiness. Together, all these factors might have newcomers concluding that this Long Island five-piece are all sweetness and light and retro satchels. Which isn’t wrong exactly, but neither is it suitably defining. There’s something intriguingly wispy and ungraspable about Twin Sister’s music that makes them so much more than cute. If Twin Sister are indeed sweet, it’s only in the same way that The Sugarcubes, Stereolab and even Broadcast were. Or the way Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti are now. Because for all the band’s sun-dappled pop and playful synths, which scissor across adroitly funky rhythms and twinkly washes of noise, the wonky soft-lit way in which it’s all put together – percolating like a lava lamp – makes for an album that’s melancholy and creepy. And in the case of Bad Street, with its strutting disco synths and hushed pillow talk, a bit sexy too. This is an airy (but not aerated) blend of ambience, indie pop and 80s synth music, delivered with a grace that ensures they’re miles from lo-fi territory. Space Babe is woozily psychedelic like the aforementioned Ariel Pink, and in other moments Twin Sister have something of the silver screen about them. There’s the Twin Peaks-y drama of Spain, with its elegant swirl and stalking bass, and Gene Ciampi, a dream-pop Spaghetti Western tune that swings from a 60s Latin beat to an inflection of Japanese folk, via galloping rhythms. These unexpected sounds and Estella’s surreal lyrics are what made All Around and Away We Go from their EP Color Your Life so satisfying: that was a cute indie pop song lashed to a looping and sensual motorik groove. And these lovely songs are dotted with similarly sharp and unexpected tacks – the effect of which is a little like realising that sweetly voiced folkstrel you weren’t sure about is actually singing about cool stuff such as medieval murder and not kittens....full text |
| Tinymixtapes |
| In Heaven positively glows. From the opening vibraphone strikes of "Daniel" onward, Twin Sister's debut full-length carries with it a magnificent incandescence, with Andrea Estella's addicting voice and Eric Cardona's more earthbound one serving as its flighty anchors. Acting on the promise of their Vampires with Dreaming Kids and Color Your Life EPs and then some, the album serves as an unassumingly magnificent vehicle to show off the band's impressive command on songwriting. Don't let the ostensible simplicity of these songs deceive you; this is material delivered with a conviction befitting veterans, not a young quintet hailing from Long Island. Perhaps most impressively, the band never seems to be consciously trying to do anything; their stylistic shifts feel like the inevitable byproducts of their seemingly boundless talent. Thanks to the band's willingness to branch out into diverse territory, In Heaven has entry points for listeners of all types, even the most jaded listener. "Daniel" emerges from the distance with all the simultaneously modest and majestic grace of a sunrise, but if you're predisposed to like stuff that makes your heart beat a bit quicker, there's the irresistible disco groove of "Bad Street," which finds Estella channeling her inner Satomi Matsuzaki with an omnipresent chirp of "beep, beep" and idiosyncratic lines like "Bad house, bad street/ Big hands, big feet." In fact, I'm often reminded of Deerhoof's pop deconstructionism while listening to these songs, not because the music necessarily sounds similar — more often than not, it's less tightly wound than that San Francisco band's carefully constructed chaos — but because Twin Sister flit in and out between different hyphen-filled genres, be they retro-disco or cinematic dream-pop or travelogue-happy indie, all while sounding like no one in particular. The lyrical qualities of In Heaven are also distinct — heightened by Estella's delivery, but also pretty indicative of mood on paper. Consider the relaxed AM-pop of "Saturday Sunday": "Went to the marina/ I saw a girl there with no shoes/ She wore a bikini and she smiled at me and said/ 'Please could I come? My friends are no fun/ They're up there lying in the sand.'" The imagery practically screams "chill," and the music follows suit, although that descriptor sells short the song's masterful handling of texture and tone. Just as impressive is second single "Gene Ciampi," a perfect little pop song that very carefully walks the line between cute and insufferable but stops right at the chorus: "If you like Gene Ciampi, you will love his movies." The tune works this balance meticulously; at just over two minutes long, it's incredibly well constructed, sinking its melodic hooks in within the first few jangly guitar notes and never letting up rhythmically or musically....full text |
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