A reoccurring series where your favorite writer listens to an album at Maximum Volume™️ – natch – and writes some random shit about it.
It happens every year – the best of album lists come out from the Pitchforks and Rolling Stones of the world, and inevitably there’s an album or two that maybe I listened to, but it wasn’t on my radar enough for consideration on my very own coveted Dadrock Best of list. My listening winds up carrying over to the following year. Alvvays’ Blue Rev appears to be my “carry over” album this year.
Alvvays has been on the scene for years, of course. From the clever spelling of their name, to their symbiosis of noise and melody, Alvvays is a most Dadrock-ish band, and Blue Rev is a most Dadrock-ish album. I of course mean this only with the most respect. What else do they have going for themselves? Well, for starters, they have a song entitled “Tom Verlaine”. Naming a song after one of your rock snob-approved heroes is always a killer move; heck, it did wonders for the Replacements with “Alex Chilton”. Their album cover is intriguing, not staged. They have a Butch Vig-esque producer behind the boards, Shawn Everett, who has worked with a panoply of richly credible bands such as Alabama Shakes and The War On Drugs. They’re sold out of a cool looking dad hat on their website, and they don’t have the Band Drawing T shirt in my size. As I’ve always said, a band’s merch is a window to their soul.*
OK – I’m ready to call it – let’s rock ’23, Alvvays.
*I’ve never said this.
