2025, 7 - Alvvays - Alvvays (2014)
I first stumbled across the Canadian pop-band Alvvays through the Podcast "Song Exploder" in which the two Alvvays mainstays dissected the creation process of their apparently concert-evergreen "Archie, Marry Me". It was a fun enough production and the vocalist's singing voice had this distinct affect that reminded me of "Lovefool" by "The Cardigans", a song that I don't feel strongly about either way, but worms its way back into my head every so often, precisely because of the singer's vocal qualities.
This self-titled album is the first full length record released by the band, whose output has some sovering gaps of time in between overall. Besides the Cardigan-ness of the lead vocalist's voice on "Archie, Marry Me" - this album's second track - I think the production does a lot to profile the particular sound they successfully establish and stick to throughout this album. There is a distinct influence of 80s synth-pop in the composition style, but seeing as the group seems to aim for minimal production effects, these tend to be played on the electric guitar with a decent, but not overwhelming amount of wah-wah. I, for one, understand the decision very well, seeing as the guitarist is by all accounts a good soloist, and even for a first album, the songs seem to play heavily to the strengths of the musicians. In a similar vein, track 4 "Next of Kin" also leans heavily on the distinct voice of the singer by writing a somewhat unconventional hookline, which forces the listener to double their focus on the vocals, as the instrumentals put a subtle drone underneath it. The entire thing is the closest to my perception of euro-pop, i.e. downbeat EuroVision music, and to motivate my mentioning of it at this point is that I'm sure it ends with the chord progression that features in the "Archie" chorus.
When Alvvays slows down a little, it seems to be in service to give space to more elaborate lyrics. "Archie" is very simple, lyrically, but for the slower, almost balladic tracks "Ones Who Love Me" and "The Agency Group". This is a very standard approach, probably more associated with the Phoebe Bridgers singer-songwriter crowd, but while the lyrics themselves didn't really stick with me, the vocal impressions did. Rankin's vocal texture in "Ones Who Love Me" has a striking flatness, without the natural vibrato that I would expect to sneak into the performance. Her switching between a disaffected and standard registers makes these tracks a fun listen, though not exactly catchy. On the flipside, the instrumentals have their showcase track in "Party Police" that leads into the first verse with an incredibly cool solo line that I'll have to transcribe one of these days. This song specifically does kind of show a particular weakness when it comes to bridges. While most of Alvvays' bridges on this album don't reach notable heights, this specific one feels to me a little unfinished. It's rarely ever about the bridge in these songs though, and over all things, I appreciate the technical guitar on "Party Police".
Sometimes, when I recommend a band or an artist, I do it with a specific song, because sometimes musicians want to try something weird for a bit, and it's hard to appreciate what they're doing when not familiar with their usual style. Alvvays makes this process comparatively easy, because such a track would be the opening track of this album. It's far from my favorite on the record alone, but it's at least not boring, not especially long, and it showcases their style very clearly. What's unfortunate to me in this context is that it's not otherwise notable, though if one pays attention to the production one might find the minimal approach in this regard kind of charming, in a garage-band kinda way.
"Dives" and "Red Planet" are aforementioned attempts to experiment and do something weird for fun. There's some very distracting dissonances in "Dives", which make up a significant part of the chorus. It actually kind of makes me react viscerally when listening through over-ear headphones, and while I suspect that this might have been the point, and I understand that writing and playing stuff like this can be fun, I feel like these qualities remove "Dives" from my favorites playlist, because I listen to it while out and about and I don't need it distracting me while crossing the street. "Dives" is also the lesser offender in the weirdness category. "Red Planet" is the closing track. It's actually heavy on the synths, on an album with guitar-leads that could easily have been synth-leads. This one's also one of the tracks that might try to make space for the lyrics. I find it actually a little too heavy on the synths to pay close attention to them, but from what I remember, they are serious enough to merit some closer inspection.
If I actually were to recommend Alvvays to somebody using a song off this album, I'd likely choose "Atop a Cake". The title makes the music sound a little more twee than it is, but it is legitimately fun. I can't even tell why I like it musically, it just gives me good vibes. Structurally, this track probably benefits most from being on this album specifically, because it seems to reincorporate many elements used in other tracks. It's even found some space for the semi-tone shifts from "Dives", along with a "Party Police" hookline and "Archie" synths.
Overall, this album is easily worth a listen to get a glimpse of pop music that doesn't sound like most other pop music. It's put together well, most songs are nice on their own, and it gains something from being experienced as an album. "Red Planet"s positioning on the album especially nudges the full album more toward an experience rather than a playlist.