Alvvays – Alvvays

Looking for your summer soundtrack? Get ready to swoon. This ain’t no hackneyed trust exercise either, so make sure you’re stood well away from sharp corners while listening. Alvvays’ sumptuously pretty pop glistens with hazy reverb and insouciant jangles, recalling yer La Seras and yer Dum Dum Girlses without really sounding too much like either of them. The Canadian quintet’s debut brims tantalisingly with effortless magnificence, reaching an early peak when Molly Rankin’s soft sighs melt like crushed ice under the radiant warmth of Archie, Marry Me’s sun-kissed melody.

Throughout the record, there’s a shoegazey fug that wraps the listener up in fuzzy earworms, almost obscuring its true, sorrowful heart. But as with all great pop nuggets, these songs are at their best when left to glide cheerily over their melancholic undercurrent – subtly yet irrevocably chipping away at your unsuspecting heartstrings rather than tugging at them outright. Vvonderful stuff.