AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #353: ALVVAYS

A GUEST POSTING from STRANGEWAYS

By way of a backpedalling preface, after reading the words below, maybe I’ve gone too heavy regarding my take on Alvvays’ perceived influences. But hopefully these work as very broad signposts, and might even create a bit of debate among newbies and fans. So…

Alvvays: Belinda and Bilinda – an Imaginary Compilation Album

I’ve arrived very late to the Alvvays party-proper.

That said, I was aware of the irresistible Archie, Marry Me, the 2013 sing-along single that pricked ears and turned heads in advance of the following year’s self-titled debut LP.
The mystery then, if you’re me, is why I didn’t explore beyond that one song.

Well, whatever the reason, I didn’t. And it’s therefore not in my gift or capacity to offer detailed histories of records and gigs I wasn’t experiencing. And besides, it’s likely that if you’re reading this you may well know all that stuff. Most especially if you read JC’s piece from October 2022….click here for a reminder

If you’re uninitiated though, and a bit Alvvays-curious, the Toronto-based band have variously been stapled to styles as similar and diverse as dream pop and shoegaze, power pop and twee. Genre-hoppers then, albeit beneath the blanket-descriptor of indie.
Live covers have included Camera Obscura’s Lloyd, I’m Ready to be Heartbroken and Kirsty MacColl’s He’s on the Beach. Add to these Blue by Elastica, Remember This from Dolly Mixture, Trying To Be Kind by the Motorcycle Boy and the Breeders’ Divine Hammer. Plus tracks from Devo and Ramones, and a couple from the Primitives too.

Alvvays are their own band, of course, but a love of glide guitar, bending strings and diffused vocals sometimes recalls My Bloody Valentine, post-Isn’t Anything. Indeed Easy On Your Own?, from latest LP Blue Rev (2022) – named for Rev – a skull-splitting vodka/cola drink popular in Canada – feels like a way poppier, less enigmatic Valentines. Something like this track – or the phasey Pharmacist from the same record – would have brightened that band’s singles-free m b v album from way back in 2013.

Across Alvvays’ three LPs – the eponymous debut (2014), Antisocialites (2017) and Blue Rev – there’s occasionally something approaching both a Sundays jangle and the vocal delivery of Harriet Wheeler. Could the wintry Tile by Tile, again from Blue Rev, take its place on a phantom fourth Sundays album? And winding back to Antisocialites, the spirit of old-school R.E.M. pops up too, via the coda of Atop A Cake. Plus there’s no end of Scottish indiepop. To these ears the likes of Camera Obscura and Shop Assistants.

Connected to this, and in a case of JAMC’ll Fix It, in 2016 singer and guitarist Molly Rankin joined her heroes the Jesus and Mary Chain on a stage in Sydney for Just Like Honey. And Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake sings on In Undertow, the mighty Antisocialites opener.

Selected group surnames past and present even read like the morning register at your local Scottish secondary: Rankin, of course, and also O’Hanley, MacLellan, Murphy and Riley. That’s a Celtic five-a-side right there. And because we Scots can usually find a route to claim pretty much any invention and innovation as our own, you could say that there’s some corner of a Toronto field that is forever Scotland. Glasgow, specifically. And Bellshill.

Enough. Here’s Belinda and Bilinda, an Alvvays ICA with selected tracks from all of the albums.

Side 1

1. Ones Who Love You (from Alvvays)

For me, the emotional heart of the debut LP. If you don’t have time for ten tracks, this is not a bad go-to. “You know that Archie, Marry Me band?” said my friend one evening, “Well, they do this one too.” And from then on, for both of us, that was that. There’s a lovely textured guitar and bass bed on this one.

Recommended is the live take from the December 2014 KEXP session.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1dQI4Gjt9I

2. Easy On Your Own? (from Blue Rev)

A frazzle of distortion/ambience opens the in-and-out-of-consciousness Easy On Your Own?. And when it rapidly explodes following the ‘college education’ line, it’s thrilling every single time. Super drumming too. One who stalks this blog considers Molly’s Rankin’s voice to be an instrument all of its own, and the range present on this song is maybe a good example to cite.

3. Lollipop (Ode to Jim) (from Antisocialites)

The oded Jim in question being Jim Reid. But don’t expect a JAMC-style number. Instead, this is magnificently fizzy and twee, with a riot of la-la-las following an intro that maybe recalls Blondie’s Dreaming.

4. The Agency Group (from Alvvays)

From its sinister-sounding title onwards, this is a brooder that draws you deeper and deeper in.

5. In Undertow (from Antisocialites)

What an intro, and what a way to open an LP. So, naturally, it closes Side 1 of this compilation. Would love to have heard an extended guitar outro to this one.

Side 2

6. Many Mirrors (from Blue Rev)

Airy and earnest, and led by a lovely Kirsty MacCollesque vocal. And if it’s Kirsty MacCollish then it’s surely also Tracey Ullmanish. And that’s OK by me.

7. Belinda Says (from Blue Rev)

A super racket, a quieter moment, then back to noise, robust glide guitar and a key-change to die for. All this, plus a Belinda Carlisle reference. Sounding every inch a single, the band performed a storming version – elevated by live strings – on The Tonight Show at the start of 2023.

8. Atop A Cake (from Alvvays)

Scrunching this ICA down to just ten tracks was especially difficult. And the desire to well-represent all three albums meant banishing songs that would have otherwise breezed in. So Atop A Cake ended up giving Not My Baby, from Antisocialites, a biffing.

This winning eighth track is from the debut record – an album that on another day could have supplied Archie, Marry Me, and Party Police too. But, searching for criteria, and not wishing to draw lots, I chose Atop A Cake partly because that early R.E.M.ish jangle might appeal to readers of this blog who engaged, in big numbers, with JC and The Robster’s epic, near-60 posts, Singular Adventures of R.E.M. series.

Plus, and perhaps less scientifically, a song with Cake in its title is pretty much going to get the nod from me on any given day.

9. Velveteen (from Blue Rev)

Possibly the most commercial-sounding take in all of Alvvays’ catalogue.

Velveteen’s flickering 80s, John Hughesy feel is made lush and lustrous, synthy and shimmery thanks to Kerri MacLellan’s keyboards. The song is decorated with elegant lyrics of banister-sliding, of closets stuffed with lace and, most notably, contains the disarming and poignant chorus ‘Who is she?/Because I know that it can’t be me’.

So Velveteen is brill – and, yes, I’ll propose it out loud: when it comes to B(e/i)lindas, this one is more Carlisle than Butcher.

10. Forget About Life (from Antisocialites)

A bit of a cheat here, as this end track takes its cue also from the Antisocialites closer. But it’s such a terrific way to lay this ICA to rest that I couldn’t resist it.

Wikipedia lists current lineup as…

Molly Rankin – vocals, rhythm guitar (2011–present), bass (2022–present)
Kerri MacLellan – keyboards, backing vocals (2011–present)
Alec O’Hanley – lead guitar (2011–present)
Sheridan Riley – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2017–present)
Abbey Blackwell – bass (2021–present)

…and past members as:

Phil MacIsaac – drums (2011–2016)
Brian Murphy – bass guitar (2011–2021)

Labels are:

Royal Mountain (Canada)
Polyvinyl (US)
Transgressive (Europe)
Pod / Inertia Music (Australia)

Thanks as ever to JC for the space, and to anyone who’s made it this far.

STRANGEWAYS