Thirteen Tales of Love & Revenge

Allison and Catherine Pierce are from Alabama, they're sisters, they're rather attractive, one of them is supposedly (as of this writing) dating someone from the Strokes, and as kids they were both "accomplished" ballerinas. Together they make some pretty fine, artsy pop with provocative lyrics vaguely in the vein of Regina Spektor. Thirteen Tales is the first album the duo has made with their own say-so; their earlier records were pleasant if innocuous, slicked-up folk. There's a dramatic flair to their country-inflected orchestral New Wave folk-pop. With its doubled-up and contemporary-sounding pop vocal style, the macabre "Secrets" sounds like the soundtrack to a Tim Burton movie with words written by Dame Darcy, as sung by half the members of the Pussycat Dolls. If anything, they're a little too ambitious on their third album. With each track assigned its own stylistic variation (however slight), the album is scattered as a whole. But this is definitely a super entertaining duo, one to watch out for. --Mike McGonigal