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Alvvays - Alvvays

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Alvvays

Release Date: July 22, 2014

Alvvays

Release Date: July 22, 2014

All formats include instant MP3 and WAV download.

Alvvays are two women, three men, a crate of cassettes and a love of jingle-jangle.

Molly Rankin and Kerri MacLellan grew up as next-door neighbours in Cape Breton, lifting fiddles and folk-songs. Heartbreaks of different shades soon entered their lives, as did the music of Teenage Fanclub and Belle & Sebastian. Similar noisy melancholy drifted over to Prince Edward Island, finding Alec O'Hanley, Brian Murphy and Philip MacIsaac.

Convening in Toronto, the group have been making music since dusk or maybe dawn, when stars were appearing or fading off. As a result, their debut self-titled album is both sun-splashed and twilit -- nine songs concealing drunkenness, defeat and death in tungsten-tinted pop that glitters like sea glass.

With needlepoint melody and verse, Rankin and O'Hanley's songs were recorded at Chad VanGaalen's Yoko Eno studio and mixed by Graham Walsh (Holy Fuck) and John Agnello (Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Kurt Vile).

The resultant album is loud and clear and sure. Flood your ears.

Tracklist

  • Adult Diversion
  • Archie, Marry Me
  • Ones Who Love You
  • Next of Kin
  • Party Police
  • The Agency Group
  • Dives
  • Atop a Cake
  • Red Planet

Reviews

  • "destined to soundtrack a thousand new romances"

    - NME
  • "a sharply drawn indie-pop wonder, steeped in romance, wit and melody."

    - Rolling Stone
  • "First albums rarely arrive catchier or more self-assured. A-"

    - Entertainment Weekly
  • "This is the sound of pristine pop music blasted through cheap, blown-out headphones—and every time it seems like a song is about to decay before your ears, you sense both the sadness and liberation of knowing that nothing lasts forever."

    - Pitchfork
  • "...a brief but bright collection of nine songs of nearly perfect, sugar-coated indie pop."

    - AllMusic
    • #3 Exclaim! (Best Canadian Songs - “Archie, Marry Me”)
    • #16 Exclaim! (Best Canadian Albums)
    • #28 Rolling Stone (Best Songs - “Archie, Marry Me)
    • #154 Stereogum (Best Songs - “Archie, Marry Me”)
    - Best of Decade (2010s)

Videos

  • Adult Diversion
  • Next of Kin
  • Archie, Marry Me