At least the five-year wait was worthwhile: Blue Rev doesn’t simply reassert what’s always been great about Alvvays but instead reimagines it. This mix is super interesting, the vocals go from drowned by everything else to being front and center (After the Earthquake). From the swirling, all-encompassing wall-of-sound guitars that drape around each song, to the pitch-bending Korg that is so central to the band’s sound, it’s Molly Rankin’s lyrics and vocals that catch me every single time.

You’re almost unable to pinpoint what era this track is from; its big 80s keys with layered harmonies cradle the MBV-like guitars for the big Belinda Belt that Rankin gives at the end of the last verse (what a vocal register this gal has). Inspired By Belinda Carlisle’s Heaven Is A Place On Earth (of course), it’s a fictional story of a pregnant woman leaving with ‘nothing in pocket’ and seeing ‘how it goes’.Global lockdowns notwithstanding, circumstances both ordinary and entirely unpredictable stunted those sessions.

Every 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. In the edit page, go to the 'Metadata' tab and add your Juno artist, label or release page for listeners to purchase your release / releases. These cosmetic issues include: seam splits on either the jackets or inner sleeves, dinged or bent corners, and other slight imperfections on the packaging and colored vinyl. But it's quiet and clearly a very good mastering, I'll agree it's better than the CD, which I heard it on first.On the second day, they ripped through Blue Rev front-to-back twice, pausing only 15 seconds between songs and only 30 minutes between full album takes.

The results are beyond question: Blue Rev has more twists and surprises than Alvvays’ cumulative past, and the band seems to revel in these taken chances. This hybridized approach allowed the band to harness each song’s absolute core, then grace it with texture and depth.Named for the sugary alcoholic beverage Rankin and MacLellan used to drink as teens on rural Cape Breton, Blue Rev 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. The highly anticipated album is well worth the wait, with 14 songs hitting all the right chords and cementing their cult status. A patron funded not for profit record label, we are an ethics first business who believe in gender equality and fair pay for all.