Anticipation has been at fever pitch since Alvvays announced their new album Blue Rev which is out on Transgressive Records 7th October. Over the last few months the Toronto band have released singles “Easy On Your Own?,” “Pharmacist,” “Very Online Guy,” and “Belinda Says” to widespread critical acclaim from critics and fans alike.
Their latest single “After The Earthquake,” is an instant Alvvays classic with soaring guitars and the hypnotic build the band is famous for. The song, which was inspired by Haruki Murakami's After the Quake, comes complete with a Murder, She Wrote reference, and harkens back to the jangle pop influences of their self-titled debut. The band describes the song as “a rapid fire recital of drive-thru breakdown, tectonic breakup and boyfriend in a coma brake failure.”
It’s been 5 years since Alvvays released their last album Antisocialites and Blue Rev doesn’t simply reassert what’s always been great about the band but instead reimagines it. The 14 songs make it not only the longest Alvvays album but also the most harmonically rich and lyrically provocative.
EARLY ACCLAIM FOR BLUE REV:
"Across 14 songs, Rankin’s sharp character sketches are set against colorful scribbles of guitar and synths, padded with layers of fuzz. " - New York Times
“Pharmacist” is overblown in all the right ways, with all the meticulously layered noise growing into a thicket around Rankin’s tender nostalgia." - Pitchfork on “Pharmacist” (Best New Track)
"['Easy On Your Own?'] is another brisk blast of the band’s signature dream-pop sound, with complex textures not previously found in their discography." - Paste Magazine
"As a song, it contains everything that makes Alvvays so easy to fall in love with: a moony melody from singer Molly Rankin and an uncanny ability to make an unbeatable pop song sound like it’s warping under heat damage in real time. That’s precisely what happens internally when I listen to Alvvays." - MTV News on “Easy Your Own”
"Alvvays return with a classic and charming indie-pop song that explodes into life with perfect timing." - The FADER on “Pharmacist”
"The best Alvvays songs have a way of sounding urgent and relaxing at the same time, and “Easy On Your Own?” is certainly among their very best. The Canadian band makes the surging, teetering hooks that feel easy, but this is a deceptively complex song — one that’s all compressed energy and then quivery, swirling romanticism." - Stereogum
"From the sound of its jangly lead single, “Pharmacist,” it’s already looking to be a brilliant new page for the band" - NYLON
"Complete with a frenetic and exciting guitar solo to cap off what can only be described as a fantastic set-up for this long-awaited album cycle" - UPROXX
