If they had come out as a group in my adulthood, I probably would have found them creepy and disturbing indeed; a WASPy brother-sister team with perpetual and identical toothy grins singing bland commercial confections for the dazed, dozing masses-- sort of a pseudo-incestuous all-American "Up With People" deal. But...they came out during my undiscriminating childhood, and while I would never qualify myself as a "fan", I grew up with a lot of their songs and have always retained a nostalgic fondness for them. Some of the songs, like "For All We Know", are actually quite beautiful. Much has already been made of Karen's magnificent vocals, so I won't belabor the point, but quite often the richness of the vocals give an edge of genuine and haunting sadness (especially when you consider her tragic end) to otherwise melodramatic and syrupy lyrics, transforming the trite into the sublime.
