The title single from Tegan And Sara’s new album, “Hey, I’m Just Like You” is a perfect example of how the twin artists have integrated the inspiration from their teenage years with the maturity of their experience.
This week, just like last, we’re looking at both new music from contemporary artists as well as older favorites we haven’t gotten to yet. Yesterday, we spent our time looking at “The Surprise Knock” from the New Pornographers’ latest album, “In the Morse Code of Brake Lights”. But their album wasn’t the only one that was released last Friday.
Before we get into our song of the day, let’s first take a closer look at the album it appears on, Tegan and Sara’s “Hey, I’m Just Like You”.
Hey, I’m Just Like You (the album)
“Hey, I’m Just Like You” is the ninth album released by the indie pop duo Tegan and Sara. The album contains songs written and recorded by the two when they were in high school. When they announced their album in an Instagram post, they went into a little more detail about their first impressions.
“Last year while writing our new memoir, we came across two cassette tapes with dozens of songs we wrote in high school. Defiant and melodramatic, the songs captured the exultation and grief of first loves, first losses, ecstatic kiss-offs, and psychedelic tributes to the friendships we had as teenagers. We decided immediately that those songs were the demos we’d use to build the new Tegan and Sara record.”
“Hey, I’m Just Like You” consists of a dozen tracks from Tegan and Sara’s early years. In the same announcement they also go on to say that, “in making those twelve songs we pulled sections from nearly twenty of those lost high school demos. We kept the original lyrics where we could, and we only wrote four new sections.”
In promotion for the album, earlier this year Tegan and Sara released three singles, “I’ll Be Back Someday”, “Don’t Believe the Things They Tell You (They Lie)”, and “Hey, I’m Just Like You”.
While the album has only been out for a few days now, the reviews “Hey, I’m Just Like You” have received so far have been fairly positive. On metacritic, it has a score of 75 based on 13 critic reviews, and a user score of 8.3 out of 10.
Hey, I’m Just Like You (the song)
Like many of the songs found on Tegan and Sara’s new album, the title track, “Hey, I’m Just Like You” features a heavy dose of synth sounds. In this track, they fluctuate between lower energy, spacey verses and a more driving, energetic chorus section.
It’s easy to hear the influence of Tegan and Sara’s teenage years coming through in both the music and the lyrics. The result is a sincere, nostalgic, and well-crafted pop song that, without its high production quality, might feel like it came from another era entirely.
Lyrics
As most of the songs from “Hey, I’m Just Like You” were written during their teenage years, it makes sense that the content in their lyrics would reflect some of the same feelings Tegan and Sara had at the time. In this case, a lot of those feelings had to do with anxiety, friendship, and drugs.
“Stranded and I’m so lost, my mind is wired
Overcome and overdone, my fate is on fire
Eat the drugs and dance to screaming in my head
I’m so happy that we’re friends, me and you”
The chorus of this track includes its title, as well as the title of the album, so you know it’s important.
“Hey, I’m just like you
A little messed up and blue
Hey, I’m just like you
Not sure what the f*** I’m to do”
Final Thoughts
The title track to Tegan and Sara’s new album, “Hey, I’m Just Like You” is a synth-filled, nostalgic pop song that contains elements of both indie rock and punk. To be honest, I’ve never listened to much Tegan and Sara before. And while I can’t say that “Hey, I’m Just Like You” is necessarily up my alley aesthetically speaking, listening to it has encouraged me to go back and take a look at some of their other albums.
That about does it for our discussion for today. I hope you enjoyed listening to Tegan and Sara’s “Hey, I’m Just Like You”. We’ll be back tomorrow with another song to help get you through the week.
