The Con (album)

The Con is the fifth album by Tegan and Sara, released on the 24th July 2007. It was their first album to chart, which charted at number 4 in Canada and 34 in America. It has since went gold in Canada.

Background and recording
There were lots of different titles for the album, before they called The Con. These are:
 * Pass Down Heartbreak
 * What Would Natalie Mains Do?
 * Buried in My Backyard
 * Murder Murder Death Blood Gore
 * Repeat Repeat
 * Tegan & Sara
 * Welcome Home
 * Stay For A While
 * Coffee and Tea
 * That's A Nice Coat
 * Sugar Spell It Out

Lyrics and stuff
The album was written during a period of intense emotional turmoil for both Tegan and Sara. Sara's girlfriend at the time lived in America and they were getting a permanent residency application for her to stay in Canada, which is what the first song on the album, "I Was Married" was about. Tegan was dealing with the breakup of a five-year relationship. The twins were also mourning the death of their grandmother who, according to Tegan, had been like a second mother to them. She stated that these factors combined to make The Con "very dark and also very much about reflecting on getting older, long-term relationships and the end of things".

"The Con" was originally titled "Encircle Me".

"Like O, like h" was written by Sara. It was originally going to be called "SOS". The song is about Sara's childhood, she said she "was a happy kid and there isn’t a sad, sad story to tell. But our parents got divorced when we were five, and I think I had a lot of anxiety when I was kid. I worried that I was sick a lot...so, the first part of the song definitely is about me being a bit of a troubled kid, worried and anxious about things. But a lot of that was inside, like how I imagined myself when I was a little kid, ‘cause I know that a lot of people didn’t see me like that." She said that the second part of the song is about her being a teenager, she said "as a teenager I was a brat, for sure. We grew up in a tough neighborhood, and we sort of took on a lot of that attitude that comes with being around a lot of tough kids. I don’t think we were bad, but definitely in junior high and highschool".

"Nineteen", as the title would suggest lol, is about being 19 years old. It was written by Tegan, who saidd... "at 19 I had gotten out of a five-year relationship, and instead of writing about that relationship, I jumped into a new relationship. I was amazed and terrified and saddened, but also excited and totally mystified at how it was possible at 26 I was feeling the same things I was feeling at 19. How is it possible that I haven’t learned something, that I’m back in the same place suffering and tormented?."

Release
In March 2007, the band announced the release of The Con, along with the track listing and other information. The Con was released on 24 July in 2007 on CD, vinyl and as a digital download. As announced on their MySpace blog, a special edition CD/DVD was released at the same time as the CD-only version. The CD/DVD release has a parental advisory warning for profanity on the DVD, although the CD contains no explicit content. The album debuted at number 4 in the Canadian Albums Chart. The album also debuted at number 34 on the U.S. Billboard 200, selling about 19,000 copies in its first week. On week 2, the album fell out of the top 50, at No. 69, selling about 10,000 that week, totaling at 29,000. The album continued to chart that year until September, when it charted at number 192 before it fell out of the chart completely. In November, they released the I'll Take the Blame EP, which featured "Back in Your Head", a remix of that song, and two new songs, released on CD and as a digital download.

Singles
The first single released from the album was "Back in Your Head", released on CD and digital download in February, and a music video was filmed for the song. The second and last single released from the album was "The Con", released two weeks after "Back in Your Head", which also received a music video.

Music videos
The video for "Back in Your Head" features the duo performing the song in front of an audience of people wearing white clothing and white balaclavas. In the middle there is one person wearing black clothing, and Sara looks over to Tegan and when she turns back the person has gone. Some more people wearing the black clothing appear behind Tegan and Sara, and they run away as the audience suddenly turns from people wearing white clothing to black clothing and balaclavas. The duo eventually find themselves back where they started, except the audience starts going back to people in white clothing and the curtains behind them are closed.

The video for "The Con" features Tegan in a tower block talking to a psychiatrist, while Sara is searching all over the building for her. Sara eventually climbs out of the window and onto the stairs outside and climbs to the room in which Tegan is in. The psychiatrist suddenly faints, when Sara knocks on the window. Tegan lets Sara in and they run out of the room and try to escape the building. Near the end of the video, there are shots of Tegan in her bed dreaming of her drowning in a bath interspersed in the video. The video ends as Tegan manages to get herself out of the water, and she wakes up from the dream. The video for "Call It Off" features Tegan in the middle of a room singing the song as Sara wraps colourful telephone cables around her.

Songs

 * 1) I Was Married
 * 2) Relief Next to Me
 * 3) The Con
 * 4) Knife Going In
 * 5) Are You Ten Years Ago
 * 6) Back in Your Head
 * 7) Hop a Plane
 * 8) Soil, Soil
 * 9) Burn Your Life Down
 * 10) Nineteen
 * 11) Floorplan
 * 12) Like O, Like h
 * 13) Dark Come Soon
 * 14) Call It Off