Heartthrob (album)

Heartthrob is the 7th major label album by Canadian pop duo Tegan and Sara. The record was released on January 29 2013 through Vapor and Warner Bros records.

Backround

In November 2011, it was revealed that Tegan and Sara were writing new material for their seventh studio album. Tegan said that "(we) are back in our home studios working away at more songs. We’re really looking forward to making a new record now. Our hope is to be in the studio by early 2012." As for what the album will sound like, she stated "…we’re not really sure of that either. We’re meeting with lots of different producers, writing lots of different types of songs, and challenging ourselves to do a lot of really new things within those songs. So hopefully it sounds like T+S but with a whole new element of awesomeness.

Recording and Production

Tegan and Sara started recording their seventh studio album on February 20, 2012, and finished recording in May of the same year.While making the record, the band released a series of eight videos documenting the recording process, entitled "Carpool Confessional". Tegan and Sara described the album as there most commercial album yet and a goal of theirs to to achieve wider commercial success than they had previously.

Singles

The first single, "Closer", was released on September 25, 2012, and reached number 90 on the US Hot 100 chart, there first and only current entry. The single has since gotten a Gold certification by the US for sales over 500,000 copies marking the song as an official hit. In Canada the song reached 13 and has a Double - Platinum certification there. The song has since garnered over 40 million Spotify plays and the Music Video passed 20 million views in January 2018.

The second single released from Heartthrob was "I Was a Fool", on April 24, 2013. The music video for the song was released the same day and as of January 2018 the video has passed 7 million views. In July 2013 "I Was a Fool" was certified Gold in Canada.

The third single released was "Goodbye, Goodbye". The music video premiered September 17, 2013 and now has over 3 million views.

Critical Reception

Heartthrob received generally positive reviews from music critics upon its release. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 75, based on 31 reviews, indicating "generally favorable" feedback.

Commercial Performance

Heartthrob debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 49,000 copies in its first week and securing the band's highest chart position to date. It is also the first Tegan and Sara record to chart in New Zealand, the UK and Ireland. In the United States the album has sold an estimated 250,000 copies as of January 2018. Worldwide sales are estimated at 400,000 copies