Alvvays – Blue Rev

Indie-pop has always seemed like it’s on the verge of breaking into the big time, but never quite does. From the power-pop should-have-beens Big Star in the seventies to the New Zealand Flying Nun Records could-have-beens of the nineties, shoegaze & more, it’s a style that’s easy to see why people love it – and think so many others will love it. Alvvays has managed to live up to their buzz band status, and delivers the easy to love Blue Rev.

It all starts off very well with opener & single “Pharmacist”, the lovely shoegaze indie-pop that you are longing for more than you realize. There’s the jangle-pop gallop of “Pressed”, which brings to mind the happier moments of IRS era eighties R.E.M. “Pomeranian Spinster” is catchy garage-pop, followed by the great quiet/big love fuzz of “Belinda Says”.

At fourteen tracks, Blue Rev could have probably been cut down a few, the fuzz all running into each other, but it doesn’t wear out its welcome. Once more, indie-pop proves its loved status.