Review by Jamal Stone
An album’s true test comes once it’s burned to a CD-R, branded with a Sharpie, and added to the driving collection. On a whim, I burned Alvvays’ self-titled debut in 5 AM stillness. I’d had a two-hour drive ahead of me, a round trip from Richmond to Emporia, and I needed something to sing along to. Alvvays certainly has the it factor, although its hard to place. It is not structural. The songs are framed innocuously enough – 8 bar intro, refrain, breakdown, refrain. Nor is it strictly melodic. The hooks here are catchy, but they demand a few listens to take hold. It isn’t rhythmical, either. The drumming is misplaced, falling flat next to the deep bass guitar and tangy guitars. It wasn’t found behind the boards. Chad VanGaalen’s production on the album is notable for its invisibility. The mastering is subtle; this album could conceivably be a pristine live recording found on a tape deck. In a sea of contenders, Alvvays doesn’t necessarily stand out. Alvvays’ closest peers, bands like Beach House, or Dum Dum Girls, similarly approximate the 80s through a modern lens. And yet, it was there. I was belting Alvvays up and down the beltway.
If anything in Alvvays’ repertoire feels especially contemporary, it’s front woman Molly Rankin’s lyricism. Her insights squirt established pop tropes with a wedge of cynicism. The commanding “Archie, Marry Me” seems like a straight-forward love song, but Rankin lends voice to the financially bent, post-adolescents that drew headlines during the Occupy Movement. “You’ve expressed explicitly your contempt for matrimony/You’ve student loans to pay and will not risk the alimony,” she considers, before buckling and yelling out, “Hey!/Marry me, Archie!” Clocking in at less than 35 minutes, the album addresses issues such as alcoholism, abandonment, and drowning with a wink and a nod, while staying within the framework of indie rock.
Alvvays is an album that will rest comfortably in my sun visor’s CD pouch, ready to mourn summers past – to discover what Rankin calls the “comfort in debauchery”. “We never get it on the first try,” Rankin later admits on the track “Dives”. Her humility might be unwarranted – Alvvays oozes confidence from every pore, and stands as one of the defining indie pop albums of 2014.
8/10
