"Closer" by Tegan and Sara (repost), Saturday, April 20, 2024
The best music doesn't happen in isolation but rather comes out of a community movement. I would define community, when it comes to music, as a mixing of artists who bring different ideas together ideas from various genres. The result of a musical community is stronger musicianship by all those involved. Collaboration, the meeting of minds, happens naturally. Throughout the course of my blog, I've talked about various communities. Tooth & Nail, Christian Rock, and evangelical communities are definitely the biggest themes. Tegan and Sara grew out of the Northwestern Canadian/American Indie Rock community in the late '90s, and by 2013 became pop stars.
HERE COMES THE RUSH BEFORE WE TOUCH. Many fans may have been introduced to Tegan and Sara when Meredith Grey and Christina Yang danced to their early acoustic, angry girl music in Grey's Anatomy's earlier seasons. The musical duo of Calgary-born identical twins Tegan and Sara Quin started on the acoustic guitar at home and eventually led to being signed on Neil Young's label, Vapor Records. The band gained traction in the indie scene. The White Stripes covered one of their songs, and co-writing with Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie also helped them gain indie cred in their early career. But in 2013, the duo changed directions. The result was the big-production, synth pop-driven Heartthrob. “Closer,” Heartthrob’s opening track and lead single, sees the sisters explore new lyrical territory in addition to their musical change-up. Tegan sings lead vocals, but Sara encouraged her to sing a straight-up love song, without the dark and dreary lyrical content the group had been known for. According to an article in Rolling Stone, Tegan’s lyrics were about "a time when we got closer by linking arms and walking down our school hallway or talked all night on the telephone about every thought or experience we’d ever had. It wasn’t necessarily even about hooking up or admitting your feelings back then."
THE LIGHTS ARE OFF AND THE SUN IS FINALLY SETTING. THE NIGHT SKY IS CHANGING OVERHEAD. In a video series the twins released talking about the songs on the album, Sara pushed the lyrics to "make things physical," referencing high school romance. Tegan best sums up the atmosphere, stating to Rolling Stone, "These relationships existed in a state of sexual and physical ambiguity." The music gives the impression of a late-'80s early-'90s slumber party, with the sisters singing karaoke on an ancient, faux wood entertainment stand in which the television is built--younger millennials may not remember that artifact--and childish games like spin the bottle and applying lipstick. The video celebrates couples of all genders and sexualities. Both Tegan and Sara are openly queer musicians from their musical inception and have used their music as a platform in recent years to advocate for equality. "Closer" scored pop radio play and has been featured in several television shows including Glee and Bojack Horseman. The song is a beautifully innocent track about desire--wanting to take things to the next level, but being too young, too naive, and too shy to do so.
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