Alvvays just released a new album on October 7th titled Blue Rev, another beautiful album co-released with Polyvinyl. If you’re not familiar with they’re work so far, they’re an indie pop band from CharlotteTown, Prince Edward Island Canada. Now that they’re a pretty successful band they’re based out of Toronto. The lead singer Molly Rankin usually has a whispery calm voice that goes so well over the rest of the band jamming out. In this record I think we get to see her get loud and get loose a little more than usual.
This album opens up in a super fun, upbeat song: “Pharmacist.” I don’t know how to describe the mood of it other than it feels and sounds really joyful despite their signature melancholy sounds. It’s short and sweet, coming in at just two minutes long. I love the end of the song the most, with a couple of guitars jamming.
“Easy On Your Own?” Is another easily lovable song with an opening line that says “I dropped out of college education’s a full knife”. It has an emotional chorus that Molly shouts out. This song rolls into the next.
“After the Earthquake” is another upbeat jam that is reminiscent of the Cranberries in their peak. This song has a lot of parts and is layered with ambient noise. Which is juxtaposition with a vocal and piano part as the bridge. That builds back into the final chorus.
“Tom” begins with a distant organ and vocal combo. That goes into a song that for me doesn’t stand out as much as the others. It sounds like it could have easily come off of their previous album Antisocialites.
“Pressed” sounds as though it was influenced by 90s Irish music. It has a mandolin or maybe a banjo. But the beat machine and synth is what makes it sound 80s/90s inspired to me. I think it has a fun and busy sound, with ambient electronic noises.
“Many Mirrors” has layered vocals and a very sweet melody line.
“Very Online Guy,” wow! This sounded new to me, the sounds they used were not their typical, though it still had super distorted and ambient guitars. It also has compressed electronic drums. I couldn’t understand much of what Molly was saying. But I got the general idea of the theme through the title and soundscape.
In “Velveteen,” the vocals quite literally travels around. I would recommend listening with a good pair of headphones. This song has more catchy 80s-esque synth. I’ve been under the impression that 80s synth isn’t in style, this album has shown me otherwise so far. This song ends with a long drawn out high note as the outro.
“Tile By Tile” stood out as a really passionate song, though I cannot understand what she’s saying very well. I love the drums and the way this song steadily rolls by. If this song played at the end of a movie I’d stay in the theater and watch the credits roll by. I think it reminded me of a song that would be in a movie because of the twinkly piano part.
“Pomeranian Spinster,” based on the title, seems to indicate this song is actually taking place inside the brain of a dog. Hear me out… the lyrics consist of in the moment thoughts, Such as “he’s gonna bite me” and “hummingbirds are what you want.”
“Belinda” has a calm intro that resets the from the last song. It rolls into another catchy indie pop song.
“Bored In Bristol,” the sounds for this song were interesting! Sounded like a low-fi video game.
“Lottery Noises” has a beautiful Wurlitzer piano sound on it.
“Fourth Figure” acts as a short and sweet outro that has a cinematic quality to it.
Overall this album is easily recognizable as Alvvays. It’s shoegaze-y and twinkly. In my opinion it’s more dynamic than their previous album, however their songs certainly sound similar. It felt like a journey from start to finish. Molly really did push her voice more to hit those bells and whistles.
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