Tegan and Sara's latest single gets the BoJack Horseman treatment in a surreal new music video

The award for August’s best shot of pop culture surrealism goes to the new music video for Tegan and Sara’s "Hang On to the Night," the latest single off the pair’s synth-pop dream of an album, Love You to Death.

As you press play, get ready to fall into a simultaneously bizarre and gorgeous animated world, one where a horse can sleepily flick stars into the night and cats can somersault through the sky. They’re hanging onto the night, literally, for dear life.

The video’s aesthetic may look familiar to you if you’ve seen Netflix’s dark comedy BoJack Horseman, because the two share the same designer: artist Lisa Hanawalt, whose anthropomorphic creatures are immediately distinctive. Both BoJack and the "Hang On to the Night" video are heightened by Hanawalt’s visions, which blend whimsy with sly perversion in a way that both makes perfect sense and none at all.

BoJack Horseman / Netflix

In the "Hang On to the Night" video though, Hanawalt — who also directed it — shifts from BoJack’s cheekier designs to something much softer, even dreamier. A giant, violet horse wipes the sleep from his eyes and walks through the night, as tinier creatures gallop around his ankles, gearing up for the night ahead or tucking themselves away.

Though, okay, Hanawalt still sneaks in some plants in hot pants shimmying against snake women with sizeable human chests.

Lisa Hanawalt / Tegan and Sara

But Tegan and Sara knew who they were getting. In pairing their sweeping choruses with Hanawalt’s designs, Nicole Stafford’s animation, and the lush purples of dusk, "Hang On to the Night" becomes not just lovely, but entirely unique unto itself.

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple of big issues with relying on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on:

First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.

Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. And we can’t do that if we have a paywall.

So even though advertising is still our biggest source of revenue, we also seek grants and reader support. (And no matter how our work is funded, we have strict guidelines on editorial independence.)

If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today? Any amount helps.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via