Listen to CHVRCHES Cover Tegan and Sara’s “Call It Off”

Listen to CHVRCHES Cover Tegan and Sara’s “Call It Off”

Tegan and Sara announced the tracklist last week for the 10-year anniversary release The Con X: Covers, which is set to include a Ryan Adams version of “Back in Your Head” and Shura covering “The Con”—but first, a CHVRCHES rendition of “Call It Off.”

CHVRCHES deliver a decidedly stripped-down refrain of “Maybe I would have been something you’d be good at / Maybe you would have been something I’d be good at,” the silent self-torture of “What if?” in the wake of a relationship you’ve already ended. The Scottish pop stars, known for their emotional walls of sound, build a hazy backdrop of noise surrounding “Call, break my own heart” that threatens to engulf logic. This is in contrast to the twin’s snappy delivery of the lyrics—they’re intended to cut to the quick. In their video for “Call It Off,” the twins are literally tied up with rope.

Tegan and Sara say on their site that, at the heart of the album, is “the hope that this … would tell another chapter in the story that was The Con.” And tell it with a purpose: All proceeds will go to the Tegan and Sara foundation, which raises money for self-identified women and girls in the LGBTQ community.

For the sister stars, the idea is profitable in more ways than one: music with widely covered subject matter that hasn’t been widely covered. And however you feel about 2007’s The Con versus pop-era Tegan and Sara, The Con X: Covers (available Oct. 30 on CD and Dec. 22 on vinyl) promises to deliver something original.

Listen to CHVRCHES’ “Call It Off” in the player below, and Tegan and Sara’s original version beneath that. The Con X: Covers is available for preorder via the band’s website starting tomorrow.

 
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