Alvvays
Alvvays Faced Down Challenges (and Came Out Better for Them) to Make Blue Rev
It took five years for Alvvays to release a follow-up to their critically acclaimed 2017 album Antisocialites, but the Toronto-based band didn’t intend to be away for quite so long. The odyssey to get to their third album, Blue Rev (out now via Polyvinyl and Transgressive), was rife with setbacks and challenges. In fact, Alvvays had planned for Blue Rev to come out shortly after Antisocialites. “We were hoping to get a jump on it, because there was such a long gap between our first two [records],” vocalist Molly Rankin tells SPIN from her home in Toronto. Rankin and lead guitarist/co-songwriter/significant other Alec O’Hanley began writing the album in 2018, but the band — which generally doesn’t write on the road — was constantly touring in support of their second record. Then Rankin’s ap...
On Alvvays’ Thrilling Blue Rev, Nostalgia Spurs Indie-Rock Triumph
Let’s talk about Blue Rev. Not the new Alvvays album, but the booze for which it’s named, because this is some deeply, deliciously Canadian shit. The niche nostalgia play is fitting for a Toronto band largely defined by backward glances: to past loves and the jangly post-punk of C-86 bands like Primal Scream and the Wolfhounds. Anyway, Blue Rev is the forefather to our infamous Four Loko — a trashy, plastic bottle “alcopop” energy drink that looks like antifreeze, tastes like blue slushie (or freezie in Canada) and blew up around 2000 in Ontario, when and where it was released, mainly with club kids. It’s also exactly the sort of sugary garbage that teens would sneak behind a mall or roller rink, grabbing a quick buzz in between hating everyone and everything. Such is the essence of Blue R...
Alvvays Drops Two New Songs and Videos From Upcoming Album
Alvvays has unveiled two more new songs from its long-awaited new album, Blue Rev, which will be released Oct. 7 on Polyvinyl. Both “Belinda Says” and “Very Online Guy” are accompanied by videos, the latter of which was co-directed by band members Molly Rankin and Alec O’Hanley. “Two new lambs for the cultural volcano! One more sweet slurp of alcopop dedicated to the girls wiping tables called ‘Belinda Says’ and the dial-up electronic dream ‘Very Online Guy,’ the band says. “We directed a mosaic-mode vid for ‘V.O.G’ with our videoguru friend Colby. This was easily the funnest thing we’ve ever shot. Enjoy our clunky low-bit collage of aliased key clacking and step-dance scramble on your CRTs.” “Belinda Says,” which references Go-Go’s lead singer Belinda Carlisle’s 1987 solo hit “Heaven Is a...
