Alvvays

First album was nearly perfect.

New album (out Friday) is nearly perfect.

They get/need their own thread (rather than sharing one with Honeyblood).

This band gets all the heart-eyes emojis.

"Archie, Marry Me" is one of my decade favourites.

^^ an all-time classic, for sure

what strikes me, i guess, is that each of the first two albums has, i dunno, 4 or 6ish songs that are as good / nearly as good? that is impressive!

I've only heard the new album once so far, but it sounds just as lovely as the debut.

Maybe I'm just a old person now, but this band sounds exactly like if Johnny Boy covered Camera Obscura's "Lloyd I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken"

I love the lead singer's voice both in studio and live

They're good!

Yeah, they are.

Love them. "Archie marry me" is song of the decade yes I agre!

I have a soft spot for Archie too. But besides that nothing ever clicked with me. I guess it's one of these one hit bands, no?

yeah, totally. one hit band.

"Next of Kin" shares the top spot w/Archie to me.

I might be alone on this one but there's also something sort of 90's to their sound and her voice, like Cardigans or Cranberries besides the obvious Johnny Boy comparison which is otm.

i love this band

atop a cake is a really good song

Moka OTM, add to that in Archie the verses draw a resemblance to Ode To My Family. Much different vibe tho

Listening to the new album now - it's beautiful

"dreams tonite" pins me to the floor

Plimsoll Punks is a perfect song

I wonder if brad still hates them

norman blake is on a track on the new one apparently?

The new album definitely didn't hit me the same way the debut did, but I'm enjoying it a lot. It's been a good year for this kind of indie pop with the Rose Elinor Dougall and Japanese Breakfast albums also being two of my most played.

It's really grown on me over the last few listens. I'd say it's on par with the debut; it's nice to hear them get a little more muscular.

Just heard "Dreams Tonight" for the first time and I'm in love. Probably the first single of theirs that's struck me since Archie.

"nice to hear them get a little more muscular" <-- otm

that's why Plimsoll Punks thru Lollipop is the meat of this record

Not my Baby has to become a single, what a song.

Love those space doo wop vocal FX on the chorus of "Lollipop"

Oh man this new record is tremendous.

This is a very good band.

never listened to the first one but I listened to the new album today and I almost really like it. I love her voice, I love the lyrics, but there's something about the music - the drumming, particularly - that doesn't quite gel. I definitely prefer the slower and wispier moments.

You should def check out the debut. It's wispier all around.

Like the neq album butbthe lyrics arw awful and childish.
Aren't they tired of that love/relationships/he vs she songs?

probably not because love and relationships are an extremely important part of life

First album yards ahead of the second imho

thereis a definite difference between the two albums their old sound was very delicate. this is more robust, an attempt, perhaps, to break free of any semblance of "preciousness." that is, i don't know if their last sound would have sustained many more albums.

i don't think any of the songs on here are good as "party police" but you know

lollipop (ode to jim) might be up there

the squeaky guitar distortion floating above the bubblegum hook

what would you like them to write about, nostormo?

I love this band when I hear them on the radio, but know almost nothing factual about them.

They seem glossy, shiny, compressed, professional - yet at odd times they also nod to a rougher, more cheap & cheerful kind of indiepop tradition (Heavenly for instance). Maybe the single band they remind me of most is (back on the glossier side) Club 8.

I don't know if 'singles' are still a reality for bands like this but the 'radio hits' - 'dreams tonite' and 'not my baby' - are sublime, though I am doubtful that anyone should use the word 'tonite' in a title.

where do you live where you can hear Alvvays on the radio?

Heard Dream Tonite on the radio once (Israel)

They are played fairly often on satelite radio Sirius XMU

oh right. i always forget stuff like that exists.

i'm sure they're played all the time on the local NPR music station here in mpls

WRAS "Album 88" plays them a lot here in Atlanta.

Molly Rankin is the daughter of John Morris Rankin, who played the fiddle in the family Celtic Folk/Country music collective, The Rankin Family, who were really big in Canada in the 90s.

Really come around to antisocialites

it's better/more consistent than the debut imo

They're good, but I find a kind of sameyness creeps in over the course of a whole album.

My sister says they covered Elastica's "Blue" last night in Milwaukee, I'm so jealous.

"in undertow" is one of the best songs of the decade. it is perfect.

kinda effortlessly great too

oh wow re Elastica! used to love Blue, even as a demo on an early single.

the Kirsty MacColl cover is also top hole

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km3ZPKzI26Q

listened to 'In Undertow' about a half-dozen times today. love the way the guitars weave in and out, matching the lyrics.

They’re very new to me, so I just went back and listened to their debut yesterday and today. I can see how some would see Marry Me Archie as their pinnacle and Undertow as a sort of sibling. They’re both so good and perfectly catchy, so fun to sing along to. I think the debut is more solid as an album, though both are a little patchy.

i love this band

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgOSHDitcds

so impressive to see a band pull of a live performance that is so incredibly solid. they seem like they're effortlessly in the zone all the time.

has the drummer from the KEXP performance ^above left? i'm watching a 2018 show and it's a different drummer? that's too bad if so, she ruled.

drummer has changed a few times. i can't even remember if it was a male or female when i saw them live last fall.

"effortlessly in the zone all the time" is a good way to describe this band. two of my favorite records of the past 5 years

thing about the drummer in the KEXP clip above is that she also contributed some spot-on vocal harmonies from behind the kit. not just trivial parts but really key ones. so badass

anyway, it's almost 2am, i should probably go to bed. but zoning in on this band for a few hours and just checking out everything they have has been so rewarding, totally worth it.

Saw them last night at The Fox in Oakland. So great! The lead singer hit all the high notes, the drummer and keyboardist sang perfect harmonies, and the lead guitarist nailed all the runs too. Surprised they didn't sell out (esp with Frankie Rose and The Drums as openers).

lately i have been seriously digging the harmonies that gradually appear in the choruses in "dreams tonite"

So good man

I think the Seattle show was sold out a while in advance. tbh they only have a few songs that I actively remember and care about but I’d love to see them.

this band makes me proud to be canadian

Didn't even realize that they were Canadian until they started talking about a dubs/raps finals.

they sound more swedish to me, like a mix of cardigans/pretenders at times

I've now had this same experience with both of their albums:
- First impression: pleasant but nondescript. Sort of an indistinct wash of songs without anything immediate to grab onto.
- I listen a few weeks later just to see if missed anything, and hooks start to resolve out of the blur.
- I find myself returning to album with increasing frequency over a period of a year or so, until finally the songs are looping in my head whenever my brain is idle, and i realize that this might be my favorite album whether I like it or not.

Sort of the textbook definition of a "grower".

(the exception to all this was "Marry Me Archie" which I loved from the first time I heard it)

^ this is because they are an incredible pop-rock band

Just grabbed tickets to see them in Dec!

archie is the best indie pop song of all time

i had the same general reaction as enochroot. "Plimsoll Punks" reaaaally grew on me after a handful of listens. the smiths/marr guitar lines during the verses are so good

you all might enjoy some of this new beths album that got the big ups from pitchfork yesterday. a lot of the songs (like 'happy unhappy' and 'great no one') have a tightly composed hook-filled upbeat vibe reminiscent of alvvays songs like 'plimsoll punks'

Thanks!

thanks dude. i love alvvays so much

Great tip! I just listened to the album and it really is fantastic. You're right about the hooks, there were strong ones on every song. Brilliant playing too. Looking forward to spending more time with it.

i mentioned it in the new zealand music thread but yeah that the beths album is the best

yeah, the pfork review mentioned they were all music school students and they sound like they can do this stuff in their sleep. more music school people need to play in guitar bands imo

Oh, this is good. The vocals are making me lose it.

extremely good

tell you what, this first LP has really stood up. gotta be the finest slice of guitar pop the past ten/twenty years.

archie is the best indie pop song of all time

― diamonddave85​​ (diamonddave85), Monday, June 11, 2018 12:40 PM (one year ago)

i think they both hold up well

but i heard the second before i heard the first. it's funny how it often works that way

(preferring the first one you hear, i mean, although i like the first almost as much)

After initially thinking Antisocialites wasn't quite in the same league as the debut, I'd have a tough time picking between them now. Wonder if they're working on new material already?

New Alvvays record is tops, tho tbh I feel if you wrote "Archie, Marry me" you should be put on a government pension in perpetuity

— colin meloy (@colinmeloy) September 10, 2017

After initially thinking Antisocialites wasn't quite in the same league as the debut, I'd have a tough time picking between them now.

Had this exact same evolution. At this point, the edge goes to the second album. That said, no other song in their catalog comes within a mile of "Marry Me Archie"

Colin Meloy Sings Alvvays

i think the other songs on the S/T stand up against archie. adult diversion, next of kin, the agency group all have emotional weight.

there's something about molly's vocal inflection that's just so fun. she's playful with her voice in a super-twee way that just makes me smile. like the middle 8 on 'ode to jim' - "alter my state to get through this date" and "...won't rely on the moon for *anything*" from 'in undertow'.

i hope they tour again soon!

I've only heard the 2nd album (I think I didn't actually know it was a 2nd album until today tbh). tbh this is probably a prejudice of possible rockist or at least indieist tendencies that I do not generally expect a band this popular that makes this type of music to be any good, so my expectations were totally smashed by how good that album was

Yeah i prefer the 2nd but they're both fantastic.

careful what u wish for triggercut

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xz72V-Mphw

Whenever this band announces their new album, it'll immediately be my most-anticipated album of that year. And I had no clue there was an album before Antisocialites.

the singer jumping into the water in the archie video is one of my favorite things

IIRC but hasn't Ben Giddard been covering that one for a while? I think they've been covering it since it came out.

oh I see this is from 2015

The album before antisocialites contains "archie marry me" which is the best song they have penned so far and one of the best this decade.

wow im sorry ilxors who missed out on first LP, it's sensational. adult diversion gets me very excited every single time.

Whenever this band announces their new album, it'll immediately be my most-anticipated album of that year. And I had no clue there was an album before Antisocialites.

― Rod Steel (musicfanatic), Wednesday, July 24, 2019 4:42 PM (seven hours ago)

you loved Antisocialites *this* much and ... didn't bother investigating whether there was anything else available from the band?

Saw a young support band do a very earnest stripped-down version of Archie which didn't work in the slightest, now I know the true source I guess

The Ben Gibbard cover is fine, but it misses out on so much of the full-band dynamic that makes the song special. The wall-of-sound band intro midway through the first line (and again after the bridge). One of the big hooks of the song is the way molly's woozy delivery of "hey, hey" contrasts with the full-steam-ahead charge of the band, and you can't really capture that in a solo performance.

controp: archie is maybe the 5th or 6th best song this band has written

I think the band itself would contest that one.

i mean sheesh, it's good, but generally i agree with this

what strikes me, i guess, is that each of the first two albums has, i dunno, 4 or 6ish songs that are as good / nearly as good? that is impressive!

― alpine static, Wednesday, September 6, 2017 12:37 PM (one year ago)

i LOVE most of the songs from both albums but archie still towers above all

xpost thank you for quoting me, saves me from swooping in and backing you up.

i do believe there's something *special* about Archie, and i would never argue against the position that it's an all-time classic (or even that it's their best song). what i think makes Alvvays incredible is that they keep getting pretty close to it, over and over across two albums. that's not impossible, but it's hard to do! which ... i mean ... just means they're an unquestionably tippy-top-shelf band led by a tippy-top-shelf songwriter.

It’s always been «atop a cake» that’s hit me the hardest

controp: archie is maybe the 5th or 6th best song this band has written

― Karl Malone, Thursday, July 25, 2019 8:50 AM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

seconding this, especially when you reconsider songs like "Party Police," "Dreams Tonite," "Not My Baby," just to name a few

No one mentions 'Ones Who Love You' which is my #1 by some distance

^^^ yes!! definitely up there with the aforementioned

I listened to both albums today and there really isn't much in it. I don't think there's anything close to a bad song on either. Archie might still be my favourite song of theirs but they have a bunch that come close (Party Police, Atop A Cake, Plimsoll Punks, In Undertow, Ones Who Love You).

It's great and heartwarming to see how popular they've become so quickly. At work we have to re-order their albums on a fairly regular basis. When I talk to people about them, they're always so excited about them. One guy said they were his favourite band and this was before the second album had even be released. I've also seen them mentioned as influences by some of the best artists around (The Beths and Hatchie both named them as one of their favourite current bands). Great scores on Rate Your Music too. Interestingly Antisocialites has a higher score and a lot more ratings.

Can anyone throw out some recommendations for other bands which trade in this brand of wistful, understated pop perfection?
Real Estate comes close to the particular rainy-day melancholy I'm after, but I'm looking for a new fix.

bust 'em green by henry's dress, today by galaxie 500, you forgot it in people by broken social scene...

...dunno. i reckon alvvays are the only contemporary guitar pop band worth bothering with to be honest.

first thing i think of is the beths

actually, scratch that. wistful, understated pop perfection, yes. but rainy-day melancholy, no

Japanese Breakfast are probably my favourite current band who do what you describe. Soft Sounds From Another Planet in particular has become one of my most played albums of the decade.

Crying, Charly Bliss and Snail Mail

Cults, maybe?

Luby Sparks?

Veronica Falls

The Clientele

Um, that was more a response to the described theme + Real Estate reference. Otherwise not sure if relevant.

Sacred Paws

Actually the Clientele is pretty close to what I was looking for (also, kudos for making a suggestion that doesn't have a female singer)
Some other solid recommendations above -- thanks ILM!

self titled best guitar album of the past decade or what? still stunning, never bored

lmao sorry i made this same post a year ago. i've got a buzz on today.

goddammit i thought this revive was gonna be a new album

btw, anyone who like Alvvays should definitely check out FRITZ right now:

https://fritzmusic.bandcamp.com/album/pastel-2

*likes

Damn that revive got my hopes up.

sorreeee. i'll get on fritz, ty

for maximum Alvvays-ish-ness, start with "Pastel" ... but the whole album is really good

Okay the false alarm may have been worth it for the FRITZ recommendation. This is solid, and definitely scratches the same itch.

it's so good. i paid way too much to ship the record from Australia, lol

second alvvays album >>> first alvvays album (I like both though)

it's a Perfect From Now On <-> Keep It Like A Secret-ian situation

FRITZ reminds me of Black Tambourine.

Somehow I missed this last year, but they've started playing 2 new songs live:
Many Mirrors
After the Earthquake
Wasn't sure we'd ever see an LP3, but this seems promising.

How has it been almost five years since Antisocialites?

I'm still looking forward to a new album but The Beths stole their thunder a bit for me. It seems likely that they'll already be on their third album by the time this Alvvays one comes out.

Yesss!

https://www.stereogum.com/2192254/alvvays-pharmacist-blue-rev/music/

TRACKLIST:
01 “Pharmacist”
02 “Easy On Your Own?”
03 “After The Earthquake”
04 “Tom Verlaine”
05 “Pressed”
06 “Many Mirrors”
07 “Very Online Guy”
08 “Velveteen”
09 “Tile By Tile”
10 “Pomeranian Spinster”
11 “Belinda Says”
12 “Bored In Bristol”
13 “Lottery Noises”
14 “Fourth Figure”

Blue Rev is out 10/7 via Polyvinyl. Pre-order it here.

Awesome news!

LETS GOOOOO

yay!

The new song is interesting, it sounds like a more psychedelic/dissociated take on the Antisocialites sound.

Thankful for this thread popping up. I've ignored Alvvays previously but just giving then a listen now. They're really good! Reminds me of Camera Obscura but a little less cloying.

Fresh single:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWfG7F-TAWY

New songs so far seem weirdly tuneless imho

To me they seem not so much tuneless as structureless.
Both of their prior albums were slow growers for me though, so I've learned to give this band time.

haven't listened to these yet but I love how every title on the tracklist sounds like a great Alvvays song

Yea they have upped the bleary discord - very dreamy but I reckon the tunes will become wedged in yr brain all the same & will probably have more staying power because of it. Personally I’m into it.

Yea they have upped the bleary discord - very dreamy but I reckon the tunes will become wedged in yr brain all the same & will probably have more staying power because of it. Personally I’m into it.

IDK, I think these songs are *plenty* tuneful and structured, albeit not as immediately hooky as the first two albums. It's totally fine by me, I'm just amped that they're back.

YES very good agree agree still plenty tuneful - just a bit more hazy muck swirling around in the mix which is a welcome evolution cos it sorta adds shades of appropriate menace & ambiguity to the wistful crescendos & sticky hummers.

this band sounds exactly like if Johnny Boy covered Camera Obscura's "Lloyd I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken"

I stand by this!

I love this band. I learned yesterday that the lead singer is a Rankin? that is interesting!

i don't know things so i had to look that up

Molly Rankin, the group's singer-songwriter, is the daughter of John Morris Rankin,[4] a fiddler with the Celtic folk family collective the Rankin Family, who enjoyed international success in the 1990s.[5][6]

additionally,

The group toured heavily in support of their debut, including slots at Glastonbury 2015 and Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in 2016.[20] In addition to album material, Alvvays often performs cover songs of artists such as Kirsty MacColl ("He's on the Beach"), Camera Obscura ("Lloyd, I'm Ready to be Heartbroken"), the Hummingbirds ("Alimony"), the Primitives ("Crash") and Deerhunter ("Nosebleed") among others.[21]

alvvays often

Nevver sometimes; alvvays

Gave the new album a half listen. I'm not a fan of the production. It seems to lack dynamics, like it's been compressed to within an inch of its life.

Interestingly they recorded it live in two marathon sessions with 15 second breaks between songs, then came back to overdub and mix. Perhaps the compression is an overcompensating move.

I guess it's nice enough. The songs aren't as hooky as past efforts, but could be growers. I'll give it another chance.

I think it's terrific. They maybe should've cut a couple songs at the end, but generally I love that they wrote great songs and then went in and played them once and then started messing with 'em.

"Many Mirrors" and "Pomeranian Spinster" are awesome.

Played them twice, actually. I hope I land where you have - I really want to like the songs but they haven't quite unfolded for me yet!

I will say it's less consistent than the first two ... which were incredibly consistent. If perfection had been the goal, they might've achieved it by keeping the tracklist to 10. Which would've been very Alvvays. But I think the whole point of this one is imperfection.

Might be their best album:

Catchy Tunes - check

Innovation - check

Variety - check

Yes it could be a little shorter and yes it's a a little less immidiate than previos records. But that's part of the charm.

Lottery Noises is another highlight xxpost

best to give it a few listens I reckon don't hear anything here to make me think this wont be another increasingly addictive record going round and round in my ears

wow Pressed is air tight. does quite a lot with its 2:10!

Yeah it’s the best track off the album from my listens so far. Still not happy about the compression though, it really makes for a fatiguing listen.

(i'm about to contradict myself hundreds of times. don't read this if you like words)

i've liked the 4 preview tracks from Blue Rev that came out before the album. they sounded muddled, to me, at first, but i think that's because i'm used to alvvays having a clean, distinct, sound. and maybe that's what the rest of the album will be like, i don't know.

here's where i don't make any sense. i was honing in on this paragraph from the glowing pitchfork review:

Alvvays knew the mechanics of a song inside and out on their second album, Antisocialites, but now they are masters of their craft. Blue Rev is absolutely lousy with bridges and middle-8s that give even the album cuts a sense of stakes and momentum. They’ll do the Pixies’ quiet-loud-quiet thing, then a big gaudy key change straight out of a country tune, then bring in some of Kevin Shields’ famous “glide guitar” technique, then Rankin will belt out a note like it’s Adele karaoke night, then the band will bring it down to do a synth-led psychedelic song about a reply-guy in your mentions. This wide-ranging, recombinant style is less about genre-hopping and more about the construction of the songs themselves—there’s so much care over when the chorus needs to go up the octave, when the guitar solo needs to come screaming in, when the key needs to modulate, when the rhythm section needs to drop out. Any band can borrow a style, but when Alvvays builds these songs from the treasured blueprints of bands like Lush and the Lilys, they feel monumental from the very first listen.

somehow, this gets at what was irritating me about the beths new album. i like the beths. i'll probably like their new album when i'm not so depressed all of the time. but i think what was irritating me was hearing those "blueprints" too clearly, being able to predict what is going to happen the first time you hear a song, before it happens. there's something really nice in that feeling, too - that's what makes something feel like an instant classic, is when it does exactly what you wanted it to do. alvvays is a band that is often in that territory, too. but somehow it doesn't bother me as much with them. the predictability is slightly veiled.

don't know where i'm going with that. i like the beths, i started that thread, i will like them again. there's nothing wrong with being crafty as hell, every single time. and i don't know what i'm asking -- for power pop bands to "mess up"? am i just wanting 80s grunge to reemerge from power pop again? (nb: i am completely making up music history)

Karl, I think I can relate with what you're getting at. You already know how I feel about The Beths. What sets Alvvays apart is that although they're working within established power pop structures, it doesn't feel like they're painting by numbers - even when they're doing something obvious, it doesn't feel obvious. Their music has the odd surprise twist of shoegaze guitar, or a sudden shift in dynamics, that feels fresh even if it isn't. I don't get the same feeling from The Beths.

Back to the Alvvays album itself - there are some great songs here. I'm still not sold on the production, but the tunes are undeniable. This would be getting a lot of play from me if the sound wasn't so fatiguing. In case I have stated it enough; I can't stand over-compression.

I like Track 10 ("Pomeranian Spinster"), that's a good song. Seems maybe atypically peppy? (this is my first time listening to this band)

I agree the compression is unpleasant

Pomeranian Spinster also stood out to me the first couple times around! There’s a lot to like on the album

Highlights for me so far are After the Earthquake (those guitars!) and Pressed. Also like the shoegaze guitar on Tom Verlaine a lot.

yeah, the mbv-effect guitar is prominent on this album but it's well done! it nods clearly to mbv while being its own thing

(specifically the tremelo/whammy bar pitch-bending)

i don't get the beths comparison point here at all. the beths aren't a shoegaze band. alvvays have always had that in the background and on this album they're bringing it to the forefront, along with woozy retro synths.

the heavy compression seems to be trying to emulate a particular retro lo-fi feeling. similar feelings to those old lo-fi ariel pink albums (sorry for the comparison) except nowhere near as actually lo-fi. i'm not really a fan of the effect here.

it's not a bad album but it's not doing anything interesting & the hooks aren't really there either

as always, as soon as i posted the beths thing i regretted it. i honestly hate talking about music, more than most things because i love it so much and yet i have a hard time describing it. i feel like a dummy. if i had a point it was about songs which do the exact things that the listener wants. the guitar needs to be an octave higher there, to hit just right in that certain way, and so they do it. in some ways this is really weird to me, and in others i think it's probably just what power pop is. i've always had an uneasy relationship to it. i also regret this post

i think this album is a little more oblique than just doing exactly what the listener wants, the hooks aren't as direct as their previous albums (but i didn't really care for those either) but not that much, and not in a way that really interests me

I like this band but this album sounds like shit

this album rules and is super-catchy and sounds great, i don't know what you all are talking about

Yes.
And 2022 in general is a rarely superb year for indie rock/pop.

Yeah, I was thinking about my albums of the year at this point and there's some much indie rock/pop in there. The Beths, Alvvays, Hatchie, Say Sue Me, Soccer Mommy, Tallies, Melody's Echo Chamber, Nilüfer Yanya, Gwenno, Caroline Loveglow and Stella Donnelly have been some of my 2022 highlights. Even Suede made a great album. There have been a few disappointments though. I haven't really gone back to Beach House much, the Mitski album didn't hold up beyond a few listens and the Beach Bunny album was kind of flat.

yeah, the mbv-effect guitar is prominent on this album but it's well done! it nods clearly to mbv while being its own thing

― Karl Malone, Saturday, October 8, 2022 6:30 PM (five days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Prominent indeed! Agreed that it's done quite well. Like the mix of dream/power pop here with lots of good melody and woozy guitar sounds. Fun record.

huh I never checked this band out because I hate the name so much

True heads know to yell out “all-vee-vays, right?!” between every single song of the live experience until they acknowledge your presence

not too crazy about this album but the new album by Mamalarky (another bad name) is pretty good

https://mamalarky.bandcamp.com/album/pocket-fantasy

I'm a week behind on listening to this, but I'm please they've kept up the tradition of giving one song that totally slaps and then a bunch of others I'd never remember even if I listened to them 100 times.

…“Pomeranian Spinster,” right(?)

Taught my first-ever Archie yesterday, an amusing grade 1 kid. You bet I played the Alvvays song for them.

I'vve been meaning to givve this band a listen but still havven't gotten around to it.

vvhy are you typing Vs like that

Has anyone figured out how to ask Siri to play this band?

I'vve been meaning to givve this band a listen but still havven't gotten around to it.

if you don't have a problem with indie pop, i would like to strongly encourage you to prioritize getting around to it.

xp to caek: I just tried "play the band always" and it played Alvvays on Spotify, not sure if that's Siri or Spotify getting it right

ConcernedApe (the guy who made Stardew Valley) made a video for "Many Mirrors" and it is giving me some badly-needed joy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2DFWOkioy4

i've sorta gotten over how kinda shitty 'blue rev' sounds because there's some incredible cuts on it. the run from 'belinda says' to 'fourth figure' is as good as, like, built to spill runs on their best 90s albums. i still think molly is the best guitar pop songwriter around right now. so many new guitar bands just don't have any tunes, but i feel like alvvays' songs will stand the test of time.

i wonder why, for example, a lot of interesting names from sarah records were overlooked; meanwhile this by numbers act is heavily promoted

sarah recs was 25 years prior...???

why do bad things happen to good labels

Everywhere I go, I hear songs by this band playing over the sound system. Supermarkets, coffee shops, the mall. It alvvays seems to be a different song — at least, I don’t recognize the songs from hearing to hearing. They seem like the kind of band I would like; I’m a corny old indie-pop sucker. But the singer’s voice is like a dentist’s drill in my ear. It’s geared to exactly the wrong timbre for me somehow, and I find it actually, actively, unbearably needling.