Mixtapemotions

  • “Daylight” by Harry Styles + Harry House Track by Track, Saturday, June 10, 2023

    Last year, Harry Styles released his third album, Harry’s House. Last month, I talked about the former One Direction‘s second album, his musical dark horse Fine Line. I’ve listened to this album a lot–or at least started listening to it a lot–in hopes that it will make me fall in love with it similar to how I fell in love with Fine Line. While I have started to pick up on the musical nuance in this record, I still think that Fine Line is superior. But here’s a house for the tracks that I talk about on this record. I’ll furnish the house with more information as it is later!
     

    1. “Music for a Sushi Restaurant” kicks the album off in the best way possible. I’ve heard so many music snobs slam this song as a soundtrack to shopping at Target, and that’s partially true. It’s “music for whatever you want.” The somewhat shallow lyrics about the speaker’s oral fixations set a tone for the album’s lyrical depth. Things don’t go very deep on Harry’s House. There are a few points of lyrical devastation. It’s sex, drugs, and food.

    2. “Late Night Talking.” By track two, I started noting a difference between Harry Styles’ second and third records. Fine Line was generally a brighter record. Even the slower, melancholy moments lead back to warmth and bright acoustic tones. Harry’s House feels colder. There are moments of musical extraversion, starting with “Music for a Sushi Restaurant,” but the album’s second track is half-bummer, half-banger. The musical production feels a little bit like a head cold, but the lyrics evoke the feeling of being up all night talking during the start of a new relationship. Perhaps it’s nostalgia for a better time and the production is the contrast of the shitty time that is in the present. That’s purely my interpretation, though.

    3. “Grapejuice” feels a bit like a kid wanting his sippy cup. Harry starts to go deep on this track. The musical production sounds half ’70s folk with the keys and the acoustic guitar, and half indie-rock with the driving beat. The vibe I have from “Late Night Talking” lyrically is thematic in “Grapejuice”: reminiscing about the old days is fun, but it makes me depressed about what’s going on now–and this could be a pandemic depression song.


    4. “As It Was” is another pandemic depression song. When Harry Styles released the song, the upbeat A-ha-styled synth line distracted listeners from the fact that it’s a song about being paralyzed by the past. 

    5. “Daylight” is today’s song. Its calm start contrasts with “As It Was,” taking listeners back to the ’70s. “Daylight” is a prime example of how the concrete images Styles uses to paint a picture can either make the meaning of the song obtuse or crystal clear. The image of the bluebird flying to see his love turns to “sticking like honey to you.” His love is on a plane, he’s on the roof.

    6. “Little Freak.” We’re well into the album’s second act. The lyrics on “Little Freak” and “Matilda” are the most melancholy the record gets. It’s a relationship that has ended. Some have called the song offensive with the opening line: “Little freak, Jezebel.”  


    7. “Matilda” is a slow acoustic ballad that seems very personal to Harry Styles. When talking with Zane Lowe, he didn’t elaborate much on the story behind the song in order to protect the identity of the subject. The song deals with the theme of chosen family and draws a parallel between the subject of the song and Roald Dahl’s protagonist from the novel of the same name as both the subject and the protagonist are neglected by their families.

    8. “Cinema” brings the energy of the album back up to its second peak. It’s a jarring contrast between the emotional “Matilda” and the disco “Cinema,” but the summertime vibes and the buttery, fizzy imagery make the mistake a pleasant one. Many speculate that “Cinema” is a song referring to Harry Styles’ and director Olivia Wilde’s relationship at the time of recording Harry’s House. Harry Styles met her on the set of Don’t Worry Darling. 


    9. “Daydreaming” picks up the groove where “Cinema” left off. It’s dreamier, though. Another one of Taylor Swift’s exes plays on this track–John Mayer. 

    10. “Keep Driving” takes the energy of the album down again. According to his interview with Zane Lowe, Styles said that he wrote the song about an experience driving from the UK to Italy in 2020 when some of the travel restrictions began to ease. 

    11. “Satellite” is Harry’s latest single.  The song’s central metaphor is comparing watching an ex being like a satellite, watching from afar.

    11. “Boyfriends” is an acoustic track about toxicity in relationships. Styles admitted to Zane Lowe that the song is “both acknowledging my own behavior [and] it’s looking at behavior [Styles] has witnessed.”
    12. “Love of My Life” ends Harry’s House in a similar way that Fine Line ends—anticlimacticly.  It’s Styles as a singer-songwriter, but with the hype that the album sets up, I wish that there was something more dynamic to end with. And who is the love of Harry’s life? England, his home country.


  • “Body Language” by Anberlin, Friday, June 9, 2023

     

    We haven’t talked about the latest Anberlin EP, Silverline. Last summer, the band released their first project since 2014’s supposed-to-be swan song, Lowborn. This time, Anberlin has partnered with Equal Vision Records, rather than with their old family at Tooth & Nail. Rather than releasing a full-length record, the band decided to release it in two parts, Silverline and Convicted, which will arrive at the end of this month. On an episode of Lead Singer Syndrome, Stephen Christian said that the band had decided to release the album in two parts because he “didn’t understand the music industry these days.” 

    YOU KEEP GETTING CLOSER BUT YOU’RE SO DISTANT INSIDE. Anberlin isn’t the first band to release their albums as a series of EPs. When Mae became an independent artist, they released their (m)orning, (a)fternoon, and (e)vening, which later combined into (m)(a)(e). Relient K released their K…Is for Karaoke record in two parts. Acceptance’s latest record was released their album Wild & Free in a series of EPs. And it appears that Equal Vision label mates The Juliana Theory will also release their album Still the Same Kids in two parts. I always found this way of releasing an album as disappointing, like receiving half of a Christmas present now and half later. It makes the “Christmas” of the release day a little less special when you know half the songs on the record. But for a band like Anberlin, particularly a re-formed Anberlin, this format produced their most schizophrenic collection of songs, and without the format of a long-form album, the variety of sounds the new Anberlin offers sit like undercooked ingredients in a dish you’re not quite sure is supposed to be the main course or dessert. 

    TELL ME EVERYTHING RUNNING THROUGH YOUR MIND. Metaphors aside, unlike a lot of reactions I saw online, I loved the new direction of Anberlin with their first single in seven years, “Two Graves.” The second single from Silverline, “Circles” furthered the band’s chaotic journey into layered electronic hard rock. I didn’t immediately love the droning melody, but I couldn’t deny the passion in the recording and performance. Then in July of last year, the full EP dropped with three more songs: “Nothing Lost,” “Body Language” and “Asking.” None of the songs sounded like the singles. “Nothing Lost” sounded the most like peak Anberlin with a bit of a gritty ‘80s rock sound. But “Asking” and today’s song “Body Language” are pop songs, sounding as if they were written when Stephen was recording Anchor & Braille’s Tension. I love hearing the different sides of Anberlin. I love listening to pop Stephen. I love listening to the mixed up rock sounds that are new and unlike anything they’ve produced before. What we don’t get, though, is cohesion. It’s impossible with a 5-song EP, and maybe across a 10+ song record, the band could use their magic formula to make the record flow. Will they recut Silverline and Convicted as a full-length record and maybe add some more songs? And how will the new Christian McAlhaney-led “Lacerate” work with “Two Graves” and “Circles”? 


    Read the lyrics on Genius.

  • “One That Got Away” by MUNA, Thursday, June 8, 2023 + Pride Playlist: AppleMusic Edition

    Last year, MUNA released their self-titled record just in time to close out Pride month–and coincidentally coinciding with the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The album contained several singles leading up to the release of the record and the early ’00s inspired “What I Want,” bombastic, loud, and proud and ready to get us all “danc[ing] in the middle of a gay bar.” Since the release, MUNA has had some notable appearances at Coachella alongside with indie darlings boygenius and opening for Taylor Swift on her most recent tour. At Coachella, MUNA debuted two new songs, including their most recent post-third record single, “One That Got Away,” an ’80s/’00s-inspired synth pop track on the common theme of the band, love that never worked out. And that’s where we’ll base our AppleMusic edition of 2023’s Pride playlist. Enjoy!

     


  • “Karma” (Remix) by Taylor Swift ft. Ice Spice, Wednesday, June 7, 2023

    I would argue that since reputation, Taylor Swift has made a career based on revenge. The singer-songwriter is extremely intentional and calculated when releasing new singles and albums. Most recently, Swift released yet another deluxe edition of Midnights, this time calling it The Til Dawn Edition, featuring a new song and two remixes. When she first released Midnights in October of last year, many listeners were wondering what was different about the album. It felt like reputation but the singer was in a steady relationship with English actor Joe Alwyn, and everything was going great, right? right?


    KARMA IS A CAT PURRING ON MY LAP. When tabloids started reporting that Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn had split in early April this year, the pointed lyrics of Midnights started to make a little more sense. Was Swift reacting to the expectations–from others or even Alwyn– that their relationship should end in marriage? Could the singer stay in a “1950s shit” “Lavender Haze” forever? The commentary about the end of the relationship is endless online right now. Swift reportedly moved on and began dating Matthew “Matty” Healy, the lead singer of English rock band The 1975. Healy and Swift had been friends for a while and worked on music together, and some have speculated that this collaboration was a wedge in the Swift-Alwyn relationship. I think of Taylor Swift as a master collaborator, even creating a universe around the artists she’s worked with and kind of force field blocking other artists, usually those who support her enemies like Scooter Braun. Usually, when the “Taylorverse” expands, there are some awesome crossovers between Swifties and other fandoms. We can see this with Swift inviting guests on stage at her shows from classic rockers like Mick Jagger to LGBTQ+ icons like Tegan and Sara and MUNA. The Taylorverse has expanded into dad rock with Aaron Desnner and The National, to indie rock with the Phoebe Bridgers, to sad girl pop with Lorde and recently Lana Del Rey, to pop punk with Paramore, Panic at the Disco, and an announced collaboration with Fall Out Boy–and of course, her maintained relationships in the country music community. 

    SPIDERBOY, KING OF THIEVES. Taylor Swift’s relationship with The 1975’s Matty Healy divided fans. Healy’s list of controversies, especially for racism came to light again just as Swift and Healy were seen at each others’ shows. One particularly damning comment was Healy’s comment about up-and-coming rapper Ice Spice. Just as the public was reminded of Healy’s comments and starting to realize who the Gen-Z rapper was, Taylor Swift announced 1) a new edition of Midnights 2) a special guest performance during her New Jersey leg of the tour, and 3) that guest would also be on the remix of the track “Karma.” Of course, the guest was Ice Spice, and of course, we didn’t hear about the conversations between Swift, Healy, and Ice Spice. Midnights continues to break sales and streaming records, and “Karma” (remix) debuts at number 2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. Matty and Taylor live happily ever–like the Russell Brand to former rival Katy Perry, like the romanticized problematic bad boys in Lana Del Rey songs. Nope. In the true fashion of a Taylor Swift album cycle, the musicians broke up, reportedly amicably. This whirlwind romance isn’t nothing new to Swift; maybe it feels a little old. But what’s new is the “living album” cycle. I just hope that Swift is happy. No shade intended. 








     

  • “Eyes Wide Shut” by ILLENIUM ft. Avril Lavigne & Travis Barker, Tuesday, June 6, 2023

    The electronic dance music of the ‘10s couldn’t be farther from ILLENIUM’s self-titled album, released last month. Following up 2019’s Ascend, the eponymous record delves into pop-punk and hard rock along with more familiar sounds of pop and R&B. Although ILLENIUM started his career remixing Alternative artists like Florence + the Machine and Lana Del Rey, he found success in working with pop acts. But today’s song is a prime example of how rock became popular in the early ‘20s after nearly 20 years of being untrendy.


    I SAY I’M FINE, BUT I’M MISERABLE. In an interview with Zach Sang shortly after releasing his self-titled album, ILLENIUM talked about his rock influences which he could now proudly bring to his DJ career. But rather than assembling artists like his rock heroes, something an artist may have done twenty years ago when artists’ peak careers were shorter, Illenium features three veteran acts: All Time Low, Avril Lavigne, and Travis Barker. Today we’ll discuss the latter two who appear on the track “Eyes Wide Shut.” These days, there seems to be a universe assembling around the blink-182 drummer. It seems that Travis Barker acts as a rock evangelist, bringing pop artists into the fold, transforming them into pop-punk, emo, or hard rock acts. For example Barker took acts like Willow, the daughter of actors Will and Jada Pincket-Smith who was known for a trap single “Whip My Hair,” released when she was only ten years old. With Travis Barker, Willow leaned into the hard rock sound of Evanescence, but even going harder, creating an anomaly in pop and rock music. Similar to the Olivia Rodrigo phenomenon, Gen. Z doesn’t seem to feel confined to arbitrary titles of genre.

    I’M WIDE AWAKE IN MY DREAMS. Unlike Travis Barker, the main featured artist on “Eyes Wide Shut,” Avril Lavigne, has a more “Complicated” relationship with the pop-punk music scene. When Let Go dropped in 2002, Avril Lavigne certainly garnered fans, but many of those fans were on the fringes of the “scene.” Lavigne’s early career never fully impacted rock radio for several reasons. Was it that her music was derivative and formulated with the latest “cool” sounds? Was it that the singer was a pop star in disguise? Or was it the fact that she was a woman in a male-dominated field? Lavigne’s music post-Let Go continued to be rock or rock-adjacent to mixed critical and fan-reception. Lavigne certainly hasn’t been without musical missteps, the WTF 2013 single “Hello Kitty” is probably the best example.  However, a duet with Marylin Manson on the same eponymous album showed a new versatility in the singer’s catalogue. And since her career nadir of “Hello Kitty,” Lavigne has begun ascending in both critical reception and re-evaluation by the “scene.” Collaborations with Travis Barker, a spot on the When We Were Young Festival in 2021 certainly show us music snobs that the singer was 1) never a Britney Spears with a guitar but a real punk rocker and 2) capable of growth, and 3) who the fuck cares she’s in our sister’s stereo? Seriously, down with the misogyny! 

    Read the lyrics on Genius.

  • “BIG” by Betty Who, Monday, June 5, 2023+ Pride 2023 Mixtape

    In 2022, Betty Who released her fourth record, BIG! Who talked about the themes that would eventually contribute to this album on the Queerty podcast, talking about her embracing her tall stature and clothing choices, intentionally focusing on her masculine side. Who told host Cameron Esposito that she started wearing men’s clothing because she could find them in her size, and then continued because she felt comfortable in them. The title track “BIG,” challenges all folks–women, men, and non-binary folks–to embrace what is true to themselves. I thought today’s song would be the perfect introduction to 2023’s Pride playlist. For this playlist, I’ve started by assembling 30 songs by LGBTQ+ musicians and allies. Let’s have a great Pride month!


     

  • “Rose Colored Lenses” by Miley Cyrus, Sunday, June 4, 2023

     

    This is the third track I’ve talked about from Miley Cyrus’ latest album, Endless Summer Vacation.   Although the album doesn’t have a title track, the album’s title comes from the album’s third track, “Rose Colored Lenses.” Musically, the track is proof of the influence of Cyrus’ last album, Plastic Hearts. While Endless Summer Vacation is thoroughly a pop album and a kind of return to form of the “Wrecking Ball” singer, the heavy bass guitar in the ballad “Rose Colored Lenses” feels like it comes from the rock-heavy previous album.

    SOMEHOW THE BEDSHEETS ARE DIRTY. Lyrically both Endless Summer Vacation and Plastic Hearts are similar. Both albums deal with the singer’s divorce with Liam Hemsworth. Both albums deal with the singer’s independent, untamable spirit. And both albums have a little regret in them. Today’s song “Rose Colored Lenses” is a recollection about how good the sex was. The metaphor of the song likens sex to putting on “rose-colored lenses,” initially blinding the speaker from noticing the glaring issues that come up when two people are incompatible.  The memory of wild sex that leads to either roughing up the hotel room or even some damages signals regret in the speaker’s wistful memories. She may ask “what if it didn’t turn out this way?” “Was it inevitable that we would grow incompatible?” or “What if we could re-create that weekend? Would we still be together?” Alas, neither summer or vacation are endless, so at some point things have to become real and the glasses have to come off. 

    WE COULD STAY LIKE THIS FOREVER. When discussing Miley Cyrus, the singer’s religious past has been both over and under-stated.  So often conservative Christians have pointed out the corrupting force that Disney had on its young stars. Lindsay Lohan and Miley Cyrus are often the prime examples, but there are certainly others who serve as dog whistles. While Lindsay Lohan’s wild addictions certainly serve as a point in the conservatives’ favor, reevaluating Cyrus’ rebellion since the time she “stepped off the plane at LAX” is more about holding society’s sexual mores in-line with the Bible than about a person’s “God-given right” to bodily autonomy. There were several reasons why Cyrus’ sex-positivity caused grumbling among the pre-DeSantis anti-Disney camp. One of the main reasons was that Cyrus was once outspoken about her Baptist faith and even wore a purity ring, swearing off sex until marriage. But little by little, Cyrus realized that her sexuality was more complicated than the Evangelical explanation, so she took off her purity ring, started dating men and women, and twerking in concert. Cyrus’ transformation was only unique that it required a crisis of faith to react to. And of course, it’s always a little uncomfortable the “coming of age” of a famous child star. “Rose Colored Lenses” doesn’t look back at the simple times when a Baptist Miley Cyrus probably defined marriage as “one man, one woman until death do us part,” but sometimes when some of us post-evangelicals think about heart break, it feels nice to think of the world that simply. Then we’re hit with the reality that that myth was never true. 

    Read the lyrics on Genius.

  • “Waffle House” by Jonas Brothers, Saturday, June 3, 2023

     

    Let’s revisit last month’s discussion about The Album, the latest record from Jonas Brothers. Referring back to the interview with Charlie Harding on the podcast Switched on Pop, Nick Jonas explained that the brothers wanted to put “something together that sounded like what coming to one of our shows is like.” Achieving this sound has the band leaning into the past rather than electronic elements or studio sound effects. 

    IT’S GON’ GET FIGURED OUT. Charlie Harding referred to the Jonas Brothers’ The Album’s sound as “album-oriented, band-driven music,” which refers to the music of the ‘60s- ‘80s when many listeners preferred listening to albums over singles. My guess is that the experience of a Jonas Brothers show in the late ‘00s probably wouldn’t be focused on the musicality of the band, but rather the euphoric dopamine rush (for a certain demographic) of seeing the brothers performing. However, with only Kevin strumming a guitar in the band’s recent videos, the “band sound” of a live Jonas experience—in 2008 or 2023–requires many touring musicians who are not Kevin, Joe, or Nick. There seems to be something about fidelity to music that can be played live rather than sample-based music at the core of who Kevin, Joe, and Nick are as musicians, at least for their Jonas Brothers projects, which could literally sound like anything made in a studio. They could have produced an entire album with DJs like Marshmello, and probably fans may not have noticed the difference.

    YOU KNOW IT’S ONLY LOVE. In 2020, the Jonas Brothers performed in the Netflix holiday series Dash & Lily. The band performed some of their new songs after breaking their hiatus in 2019. And while the performance was filmed for a drama, I realized that the demographic of a Jonas Brothers’ show now looked very different. The brothers weren’t just performing for tween girls anymore. It was still pretty clean-cut, but it was pretty much for everyone. In April, the Jonas Brothers performed on Saturday Night Live, performing the closing track of The Album, “Walls” with their producer Jon Bellion and a special appearance by Gospel artist Kirk Franklin. The band also performed their bombastic single “Waffle House,” a song that lyrically digs into the brothers’ family structure as they were growing up with their parents managing their musical success. From both performances, the band’s music utilized a small choir. The band released the single a day prior to their SNL performance, and just as Nick said in the Switched on Pop interview, the sound of both the single and the live performance is quite similar. But what sells “Waffle House” is the nostalgia for a time when millennials were old enough to drive but not old enough to drink, legally. It is the feeling of wanting to be older and following your dreams, but looking back on that time and realizing that those “late-night conversations” were the dream. And with any Waffle House, there’s always the threat of danger. It’s the place where meth-heads mentally unstable people and racist idiots with guns might show up. But that’s a rare occasion, and when you see the warm glow of the yellow lights, you tend to forget about that incident you saw on the news in another city six months ago. So, pour another cup of coffee; order your hash browns smothered, covered, topped, diced, or however; and slab on some butter and fake maple syrup because this night is gonna get interesting.

    Read the lyrics on Genius.

    Lyric video:

    Music video:

    SNL performance:

    Unrelated sketch from earlier this season on SNL: 







  • “Live Forever” by The Fold, Friday, June 2, 2023 (partial repost)

    We all have to pay the bills, and musicians are certainly no exception. Randy Torres formerly of Project 86 works in sound design. Dan Koch of Sherwood writes music for adverting. Stephen Christian is a music pastor. All of these examples, though, have kept the band separate. The Fold released two records on Tooth & Nail Records, but never achieved the greatness of their label-mates, save a Grammy nomination for the packaging of their sophomore record. Though having a smaller fanbase than other Tooth & Nail bands, The Fold started partnering with brands, writing theme songs, most notably Lego’s Ninjago, for which they performed exclusively for seven years. 

    I SPENT A LONG TIME BUILDING LADDERS TO THE STARS. Today’s song comes from The Fold’s 2013 independent record, Moving Past. “Live Forever” is the album’s fourth track. The themes on the album are somewhat humanist and somewhat Christian. The subject of “Live Forever” is not about one’s eternal resting place in heaven, but rather it’s an assertion that “I can’t live forever.” The song doesn’t correct its theology, but rather realizes that death is restful after years of toil, particularly toil caused by fruitless tasks such as “building ladders to the stars.” And coupled with the album cover artwork reminding me of Charon as he sculls his boat along the river Styx, we come to trust death as a natural process. The upbeat tone of “Live Forever” keeps the lyrics from falling into a depression. Practically, who wants to live forever? Who wants to outlive their peers? For much of human existence, early death was a reality. Thirty-five was once considered old, but yet we’re living long and longer these days. And now there’s talk of trans-humanism, scientific advancement that will allow us, or the most wealthy of us, to upload our consciousness to the cloud and download it onto a younger body. If this ever happens, people will have to grapple with problems eighty years often cut short.

    THESE BONES DON’T STAND A CHANCE. I fear the future every day. I fear poverty. I fear losing my loved ones as I get older. I don’t think a teenager ever thinks they will wake up in a thirty-three year old body, but I’m fearing how fast the calendar pages are turning. I’ve heard people say they think life is long. I don’t remember the last time I was bored. It seems there’s always something to fill up my time. And yet, I wonder, does there come a point when you say, I’ve lived a good life; I’m ready for it to end? On my darkest days when I think I’d rather be dead than face what’s up next, but on the way to work I almost step in front of a bus and I start fighting for my life. I think about the sad story I heard yesterday about one of my former coworkers’ daughters died from a genetic disease after she spent her young life studying and working very hard as nurse. It’s horrible to hear about someone dying in their 20s. There’s so much life she couldn’t live. Dying at sixty has us saying “she was too young.” We don’t want the day that we finally have to say goodbye to our loved ones—grandparents, aunts and uncles, and our parents. Mental illness aside, there’s never a good age that we can say, “I’m glad to have lived this long and I hope that I die tomorrow.” Perhaps it’s our mind that wants to live forever, but our bodies protest in the end.

    Read “Live Forever” by The Fold on Genius.

  • "Closer" by Tegan and Sara, Thursday, June 1, 2023 (repost)

    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.