We’ve all been there, wishing we could watch an animated centaur-esque being wander through an animated nighttime scene with a lot of part-animal-part-humans with breasts. Right? But could we ever have dreamed such a blessing could come as part of a Tegan and Sara video?? No, we could not have.
With the artistic direction of Lisa Hanawalt of Bojack Horseman and animation by Nicole Stafford, the video for “Hang On to the Night,” (the final song on Tegan and Sara’s latest album, Love You to Death,) explores anxieties around mortality and the safety that can be found when the sun goes down.
In an interview with Nylon, Sara and Hanawalt discussed the catharsis of the video. “It feels good to sing something sad,” Sara said. “[Night] is a time to absorb and reflect on the day, sorting feelings and experiences.”
Catharsis is right. This song is powerful on its own, but Hanawalt and Stafford’s visuals add a gorgeous mixture of hopefulness and unselfconsciousness that have made me tear up every time I’ve watched the video.
It’s also just silly, punctuating deep exploration of emotion and struggle with moments of humor: The snakes have boobs! The weird bird people have butts! The horse uses the mountains as a blanket!
Ugh you’re gonna love it, so just watch it right now:
