Photo Credit: Eleanor Petry
Taking its title from a popular alcoholic beverage of her youth, Molly Rankin and her band members reach new heights on their delayed third album. “’cause we’re always…,” Molly Rankin assures halfway through a sentence on the second track of Alvvays’ new record, almost as if she felt a reminder could be in its place. Fair, considering that Blue Rev, the Canadian band’s first album since 2017, was delayed by several years mainly because of the pandemic. Then again, indie bangers such as their self-released breakthrough “Archie, Marry Me” and the intriguing melodies of “Dreams Tonite” from their second album, Antisocialites, are the kind of material you won’t forget easily.
Regarding hit singles, Blue Rev actually isn’t as much about individual songs as the sum of its parts. Albeit far from being a concept album, it repeatedly deals with the same overarching themes over and over, where memories of Rankin’s days as a young girl in Judique, Nova Scotia are reflected through the lens of a grown woman in her late thirties. “Looking back, I should have known // All the nights that I spend in outer space // Cigarettes and old regrets // Piled in a stack out in the back of my brain,” she sings on the shoegazing “Tom Verlaine,” the title a reference to Television’s prolific front figure as if she’s about to start writing drown her memories.
Musically, Blue Rev draws inspiration not only from shoegaze bands of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, such as Mazzy Star and the Jesus and Mary Chain, but from synth-pop (“Tile By Tile,” “Very Online Guy”), garage rock (“Pomeranian Spinster”), and most importantly, from the “modified” jangle pop of Teenage Fanclub and the Smiths, with Rankin in an interview describing her attempts to “unleash my inner Morrissey” while giving “justice for Johnny Marr.”
I can’t decide what’s more impressive: Ranking’s pen – nodding simultaneously to her past and her present as she heavily references literature both classical and modern, from 17th-century poet John Milton to Japanese author Haruki Murakami – or the musical talents of her bandmembers. Sheridan Riley’s drumming never misses a beat, while Kerri MacLennan delivers more great keyboard riffs on this individual album than most keyboardists make in a lifetime. Ultimately, Alec O’Hanley truly turns Blue Rev into one of the finest guitar records of the last ten years, his soloing on “Many Mirrors” and “Pomeranian Spinster” standing out as some excellent highlights.
Sometimes, both parts collide, and that’s where the album truly establishes itself as a future classic. “Belinda Says” is a towering masterpiece. Opening with a timid synth line, it wastes no time building up to a bone-crushing power pop ballad. “Circumspect when you call collect // to see if I would keep it,” Molly sings, revealing what it’s all about – the choice between keeping an unplanned child or making an abortion. In the middle of the song, as the music softens and almost disappears, we’re entering her brain. “Gonna have this baby / / See how it goes / / See how it grows,” she finally decides, just before the band kicks off again – this time in the next key. Twisting Belinda Carlisle’s hit “Heaven Is a Place on Earth” similarly to how Annie Clark twisted Sheena Easton’s “Morning Train (Nine to Five)” with “My Baby Wants a Baby,” it was deservedly awarded “Song of the Year” by Pitchfork.
Blue Rev takes you on a vertiginous rollercoaster ride across endless waves of keyboards, drum loops, guitar solos, and perfectly distilled noise you’re not sure from where it’s even coming from. The songs are constantly finding new paths, interrupting themselves with quiet reflections, tongue-in-cheek wordplay, and staggering key changes, making every song a delight. This is a band at the peak of its powers, conquering the worlds of everyone who’s listening to it.