Alvvays - Blue Rev

 

Canadian Indie Poppers Alvvays are a special band for me, even though they've never been the most prolific of operators. Eleven years into their career, Blue Rev, (just out), is only their third album in all, but does them proud and charts out a slightly new direction, which should find them new devotees as well as satisfying those who already placed themselves in that category.

It's their first LP since 2017's wonderful Antisocialites, a gap sufficiently lengthy to make some slightly concerned that they might have lost their way or might not even be back at all. There have been significant changes in terms of their line up, though their defining characteristics, vocalist Alison Rankin's angelic tones and the featherlight and shimmering guitar touches of Alec O'Hanley, remain very much in place.

There's is a formula in many respects, but the band have sufficient craft and nous to vary their mode of delivery and remain fresh. This might be their best record, though everything they've done has been so excellent that I wouldn't wish to commit nyself on that one. What Alvvays do is to package moments of Indie's golden past, most obviously its Eighties one, and bands like The Smiths and The Sundays in particular, (though ABBA are almost invariably somewhere in the mix too), and present it in a way that seems utterly alive and immediate and not a retro package to remind you of records and bands that were actually probably better in most respects.

Of course the last few years have been turbulent ones for most of us in one way or another. Alvvays seem to have have had more hurdles strewn across their path than many. The general Lockdown thing and the experience that has brought for us all. In their case floods, thefts, visa issues and personnel issues too.

You wouldn't really realise that Blue Rev was a difficult record to make, though in all probability it was. But it comes across as a seamless one, highlighting all the things that have always made this band such a wonderful proposition over the years. Their natural pop qualities. Once again they make something that is actually very tricky look like the easiest thing on earth.