TEEN
Love Yes
Carpark Records
Led by Teeny Lieberson, the New York-based combo TEEN (which also includes Lieberson’s two sisters) has undergone a dramatic sonic makeover in the course of just three albums without sacrificing its off-kilter sensibility. The quartet began as the garage-rock version of a synth band, playing electronica with abundant rough edges. Today, they’re the epitome of polish, with supersleek melodies and gleaming vocal harmonies that echo the slickest modern R&B. But the songs are restless, probing studies of troubled sexuality and corrosive isolation, pondering “a suffered heart from years without touch” in “Push” and confronting ambivalence over a longterm commitment on “Another Man’s Woman.” Love Yes functions equally well as consummate easy listening and as a subtle antidote to complacency.
