{"product_id":"alvvays-blue-rev","title":"ALVVAYS - Blue Rev","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ff0000;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLP - Indies Exclusive Limited Edition Crystal Vinyl\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAlvvays\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e never intended to take five years to finish their third album, the nervy joyride that is the compulsively lovable \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBlue Rev\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e. In fact, the band began writing and cutting its first bits soon after releasing 2017’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAntisocialites\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e, that stunning sophomore record that confirmed the Toronto quintet’s status atop a new generation of winning and whip-smart indie rock.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eGlobal lockdowns notwithstanding, circumstances both ordinary and entirely unpredictable stunted those sessions. Alvvays toured more than expected, a surefire interruption for a band that doesn’t write on the road. A watchful thief then broke into singer Molly Rankin’s apartment and swiped a recorder full of demos, one day before a basement flood nearly ruined all the band’s gear. They subsequently lost a rhythm section and, due to border closures, couldn’t rehearse for months with their masterful new one, drummer \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSheridan Riley\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e and bassist \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAbbey Blackwell\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAt least the five-year wait was worthwhile: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBlue Rev\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e doesn’t simply reassert what’s always been great about Alvvays but instead reimagines it. They have, in part and sum, never been better. There are 14 songs on Blue Rev, making it not only the longest Alvvays album but also the most harmonically rich and lyrically provocative.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThere are newly aggressive moments here—the gleeful and snarling guitar solo at the heart of opener “\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePharmacist\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e,” or the explosive cacophony near the middle of “\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eMany Mirrors\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e.” And there are some purely beautiful spans, too—the church- organ fantasia of “\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eFourth Figure\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e,” or the blue-skies bridge of “Belinda Says.” But the power and magic of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBlue Rev\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e stems from Alvvays’ ability to bridge ostensible binaries, to fuse elements that seem antithetical in single songs—cynicism and empathy, anger and play, clatter and melody, the soft and the steely. The luminous poser kiss-off of “\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eVelveteen\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e,” the lovelorn confusion of “\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eTile by Tile\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e,” the panicked but somehow reassuring rush of “\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAfter the Earthquake\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e”.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe songs of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBlue Rev\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e thrive on immediacy and intricacy, so good on first listen that the subsequent spins where you hear all the details are an inevitability.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThis perfectly dovetailed sound stems from an unorthodox—and, for Alvvays, wholly surprising—recording process, unlike anything they’ve ever done. Alvvays are fans of fastidious demos, making maps of new tunes so complete they might as well have topographical contour lines.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBut in October 2021, when they arrived at a Los Angeles studio with fellow Canadian \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eShawn Everett\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e, he urged them to forget the careful planning they’d done and just play the stuff, straight to tape. On the second day, they ripped through \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBlue Rev\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e front-to-back twice, pausing only 15 seconds between songs and only 30 minutes between full album takes. And then, as Everett has done on recent albums by The War on Drugs and Kacey Musgraves, he spent an obsessive amount of time alongside Alvvays filling in the cracks, roughing up the surfaces, and mixing the results. This hybridized approach allowed the band to harness each song’s absolute core, then grace it with texture and depth. Notice the way, for instance, that “\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eTom Verlaine\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e” bursts into a jittery jangle; then marvel at the drums and drum machines ricocheting off one another, the harmonies that crisscross, and the stacks of guitar that rise between riff and hiss, subtle but essential layers that reveal themselves in time.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eEvery element of Alvvays leveled up in the long interim between albums: Riley is a classic dynamo of a drummer, with the power of a rock deity and the finesse of a jazz pedigree. Their roommate, in-demand bassist Blackwell, finds the center of a song and entrenches it. Keyboardist \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eKerri MacLellan\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e joined Rankin and guitarist \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAlec O’Hanley\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e to write more this time, reinforcing the band’s collective quest to break patterns heard on their first two albums.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe results are beyond question: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBlue Rev\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e has more twists and surprises than Alvvays’ cumulative past, and the band seems to revel in these taken chances. This record is fun and often funny, from the hilarious reply-guy bash of “\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eVery Online Guy\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e” to the parodic grind of “P\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eomeranian Spinster\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAlvvays’ self-titled debut, released when much of the band was still in its early 20s, offered speculation about a distant future—marriage, professionalism, interplanetary citizenship. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAntisocialites\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e wrestled with the woes of the now, especially the anxieties of inching toward adulthood. Named for the sugary alcoholic beverage Rankin and MacLellan used to drink as teens on rural Cape Breton, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBlue Rev\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e looks both back at that country past and forward at an uncertain world, reckoning with what we lose whenever we make a choice about what we want to become.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe spinster with her Pomeranians or Belinda with her babies? The kid fleeing Bristol by train or the loyalist stunned to see old friends return? “How do I gauge whether this is stasis or change?” Rankin sings during the first verse of the plangent and infectious “\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eEasy on Your Own?\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e” In that moment, she pulls the ties tight between past, present, and future to ask hard questions about who we’re going to become, and how. Sure, it arrives a few years later than expected, but the answer for Alvvays is actually simple: They’ve changed gradually, growing on Blue Rev into one of their generation’s most complete and riveting rock bands. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Transgressive","offers":[{"title":"LP - Crystal Vinyl","offer_id":42181458460833,"sku":"SDZ-01242","price":27.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0588\/3455\/0945\/products\/ALVVAYS_-_Blue_Rev_-_Crystal_Vinyl_LP.jpg?v=1657109828","url":"https:\/\/spindizzyrecords.com\/products\/alvvays-blue-rev","provider":"Spindizzy Dublin","version":"1.0","type":"link"}