Alvvays

Alvvays is a Toronto-based band led by singer Molly Rankin, and they have made three albums that are among the more precisely crafted indie pop records of the last decade. The band works in a tradition that runs through the C86 compilation and British indie pop of the 1980s, but they do not sound like a tribute act. They sound like people who absorbed that tradition and figured out how to make it their own.

Alvvays, their self-titled debut from 2014, introduced the formula: jangly guitar pop with melodies that stay in your head for days, lyrics about relationships that are specific without being confessional, and a production approach that used reverb and texture as compositional elements rather than effects. Archie, Marry Me, the album’s most recognized song, became a fixture of wedding playlists partly because it is a beautiful song and partly because the title made it easy to find.

Antisocialites in 2017 refined the approach. Blue Rev in 2022 pushed the sound into louder and more distorted territory while maintaining the melodic precision that defines the band. The guitar on Blue Rev is often abrasive in ways that the earlier records were not, and it works because the songs underneath are strong enough to carry the additional weight.

Rankin writes about romantic experience with a specificity that avoids both sentimentality and the kind of detached irony that can make indie pop feel cold. The songs sound like they were written by someone who takes the feelings seriously without being precious about them. That combination is harder to achieve than it sounds, which is why so few people manage it consistently.