Tegan and Sara, identical twins and a Canadian singer-songwriter duo  have been in the music business since at least 1999 yet have only recently come to my attention. Dark Come Soon  is a song off their latest album, The Con.
It’s certainly my favourite, mixing great vocal harmonies with lyrical quirks such as “Everyone I love, I need you now” with the other twin responding “So What?“.

It’s a song with multiple layers, a relationship ballad within a quirky pop song. The uplifting tones contrasting with the ominous lyrics, “Dark, you can’t come soon enough for me”.  It’s one of those songs that doesn’t start slow but is always building up to a glorious crescendo, you’re constantly reminded of the coming darkness, then just like that, it’s come. End.

Except…it’s not the end. Imagine it’s a hot summers day and you’re really thirsty, so you buy a drink. You drink the drink but are still just a little bit more thirsty, not enough to warrant buying another drink but enough to bother you. The darkness mentioned throughout the song conjures that same feeling for me, I have heard quite enough of Tegan and Sara’s various problems, but for some reason, I still want that little bit more.

Themes and lyrics aside, this song doesn’t do anything spectacular, doesn’t do anything innovative, it’s just nice. I know nice is a terrible word, but it’s a song that, despite its dark tones, floats along airily; a helium balloon drifting into the sky, a feather wavering in the wind. It should make me feel a negative emotion, why doesn’t it? Am I inhuman?

Darkness is often related to bad feelings, and conventional wisdom states that a whining, pleading song such as this will make you feel bad. Yet the more I listen to the songs lovely guitar twangs and relaxed beats, I feel better and better. It’s pop of the kind that will lift you out of a bad mood, like The Last Polka by Ben Folds Five, it’s not a song with a great, uplifting message; but it is a song that, ignoring the lyrics, will raise your spirit and make you smile.