Alvvays | Karlstorbahnhof Heidelberg

In the organizer's words:

Alvvays never intended to take five years to complete their third album. In fact, the band started writing and cutting their first tracks shortly after the release of "Antisocialites" (2017). But they toured more than expected, which meant an interruption as the band didn't write music on the road. Then a thief broke into singer Molly Rankin's apartment and stole a recording device full of demos; in addition, a basement flood ruined almost all of the band's equipment. Finally, they lost a rhythm section and were unable to rehearse for months with their masterful new addition, drummer Sheridan Riley and bassist Abbey Blackwell, due to border closures.

But the five-year wait was worth it: "Blue Rev" doesn't just reaffirm what's always been great about Alvvays, it reinvents it. There are 14 songs that make "Blue Rev" not only the longest Alvvays album to date, but also the most harmonically rich and lyrically provocative. The songs thrive on immediacy and complexity. They are so good the first time you hear them that you almost inevitably play the record again and again to decipher all the details.

When they arrived at the studio in Los Angeles in October 2021 with fellow Canadian Shawn Everett, he told them to forget all their careful planning and just play the stuff straight to tape. On the second day, they recorded "Blue Rev" twice in a row, with 15-second breaks between songs and only 30 minutes between full album takes. And then, as he did for The War on Drugs and Kacey Musgraves' recent albums, Everett spent all of his time with the band filling in the cracks, roughing up the surfaces and mixing the results. This hybrid approach allowed Alvvays to carve out the core of each song and then adorn it with texture and depth.

Keyboardist Kerri MacLellan joined Rankin and guitarist Alec O'Hanley to write more this time around, reinforcing the band's collective desire to break patterns heard on their first two albums. The result is beyond question: "Blue Rev" has more twists and surprises than all of Alvvays' previous songs combined, and the band seems to be enjoying this venture to the fullest. In short: Alvvays have never been better.

A cooperation between Maifeld Derby, Delta Konzerte and Karlstorbahnhof

Price information:

Box office 35 €