Canadian sister trio Teen explored infatuation’s first flush on 2016’s Love Yes; their fourth record explores its aftermath. Rather than a rancorous breakup album, though, Good Fruit is a meditative, spacious reverie that picks up feelings and examines them from a dreamy distance. Popular Taste opens with a blast of wonky bedroom pop, deploying deliberately scrappy samples to prod at gender roles, but further in there’s little of the upbeat bubbliness of Love Yes.
The skewed, spare R&B of Shadow, and the krautpoppish Luv 2 Luv, though, have their own low-key charm. Connection and Radar are haunted by the ghost of Prince, a feather-light hint of celestial funkiness. Only Water – pulsing, soaring, slightly new-agey – is visited by a closer spirit, exploring grief after the death of the sisters’ father, composer Peter Lieberson, and imagining a continued connection on a molecular level. The ballad Pretend offers a blissfully airy perspective.
This is the band’s first self-produced album, and it’s stronger on detail than as a unified structure or statement. But there are plenty of ripe pickings, revealing a new depth to Teen, and intriguing potential for the future.
