Then they lost their bassist and their drummer, and the pandemic border closures made it impossible for the band to practice with its new members, Abbey Blackwell and Sheridan Riley.Īs with the group’s previous two albums, Blue Rev was written primarily by Rankin and her partner, guitarist and producer Alec O’Hanley. The next day, a basement flood destroyed much of the band’s gear. Alvvays had already started to write and record for the new album shortly after Antisocialites, but the demo tapes were stolen during a break-in at Rankin’s Toronto apartment. In reality, the road to Blue Rev was filled with unforeseen obstacles. With such a large time gap, it’s easy to assume the band was carefully fine-tuning each and every detail of Blue Rev. “I believe that this album was made quicker, actually, than the other ones,” Rankin says-an ironic observation, given that the new record comes five years after the release of the group’s sophomore album Antisocialites. Producer Shawn Everett urged the group to abandon their tendency to carefully map out every detail of their songs, instead having them play through the album straight-to-tape.
The raw-sounding qualities of the record are not contrived. “We embraced the quirk of our first instincts.” “I think that we’ve taken some risks on this album, just bleeding in some of the more grainy moments that normally we would edit out of a demo,” Rankin says. In some ways, Blue Rev is an evolution of Alvvays, leaning into more shoegaze and grungy distortion than before-but it remains undeniably familiar with its resounding hooks and generally ethereal sound. The dreamy, 14-track record is filled with echoes of haunting melodies, and a sense of nostalgia for Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, where frontwoman Molly Rankin and keyboardist Kerri MacLellan grew up in the same neighborhood. The iconic Canadian band is making their long-anticipated return with their third studio album Blue Rev, which releases October 7. I have vivid recollections of the chorus of “Archie, Marry Me” drifting across the cafe I worked at as I refilled mugs of coffee, daydreaming about something or other. To come of age in the 2010s was to know Alvvays among other things, the indie pop band soundtracked scenes of me laying on my bed scribbling in notebooks and late-night drives to grab food with my friends. Tapping into her Nova Scotia roots, frontwoman Molly Rankin discusses the production of an album built on raw sound and formative memories
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