Sainthood

Sainthood is Tegan and Sara’s sixth full-length studio album, released on 27 October 2009.
This is the first album by Tegan and Sara to feature a song co-written by the pair, as they usually choose to write separately. However, it was not written while Tegan and Sara stayed together in New Orleans as an attempt to write together. No songs from that time made it on to the album, although one such song lends its title to that of the record. The song was inspired by a Leonard Cohen lyric. The record also includes co-written songs from Tegan’s side project with Hunter Burgan, bassist of AFI.

The album is described as such:

Tegan and Sara’s sixth studio album – Sainthood – addresses secular themes of devotion, delusion, and exemplary behavior in the pursuit of love and relationships. Inspired by emotional longing and the quiet actions we hope may be noticed by the objects of our affection, Sainthood is about obsession with romantic ideals. In the service of relationships we practice being perfect. We practice our sainthood in the hope that we will be rewarded with adoration. As we are driven to become anything for someone else, we sometimes become martyrs for our cause. Love, like faith, can never be held in an individual’s hands. But the story of a great love affair – especially one that is unrequited or has ended too soon – can be woven like scripture or a bedtime story. And so the themes of Sainthood are tied together by this simple title, borrowed, with great respect, from the lyrics of the Leonard Cohen song “Came So Far For Beauty:” I practiced all my sainthood / I gave to one and all / But the rumours of my virtue / They moved her not at all