The Sampler: Alvvays, Senica, Jesca Hoop

Elliott Childs reviews new records by Canadian indie band Alvvays, Ōtautahi’s Senica and singer-songwriter Jesca Hoop.

Blue Rev by Alvvays

A couple of years ago, a compilation called Strum & Thrum featuring cuts from little known jangly, american indie bands of the 1980’s was released by the label Captured Tracks. And while the recording quality of some of the material gave away its age, I was surprised by how much of it could have passed as brand new, such is the enduring popularity of that bright, jangly sound.

Canadian band Alvvays are among the list of bands that have followed in that tradition of crunchy 12 string guitar riffs and prominent snare drums. And though their sound and song-writing have matured from their debut album 8 years ago, their latest release, Blue Rev shows that they have remained true to their power-pop sensibilities.

‘Pharmacist’ finds the band sounding like Lana Del Rey fronting a My Bloody Valentine cover band at points, with Molly Rankin’s calm vocals sitting atop a wall of guitar and synth noise, including a joyous guitar solo by Alec O’Hanley that descends into what can only be described as skronk. With all its noisy layers and production tricks, it sets up the rest of the album perfectly.

Alvvays came up against a number of setbacks in the run up to recording Blue Rev including a burglary, a flood, the resignations of their bass player and drummer and of course a global pandemic. Eventually though, the core of Blue Rev was recorded live in the studio with the band running through the entire track-list twice, then spending weeks with producer Shawn Everett adding layers and texture to the primary elements. The resulting album is very heavily stacked with multiple synth and guitar parts throughout making it hard to distinguish individual parts at times. You can hear the process most on tracks like ‘Very Online Guy’ where a delay and time shift affect is added to the vocals causing them to sound like there’s been a glitch in the recording.

The name Blue Rev comes from a Canadian brand of pre-mixed vodka drink that’s mentioned in the lyrics to the song ‘Belinda Says’.

The story of a young woman who finds herself pregnant and the father unwilling to be involved, it is surprisingly, one of the more hopeful songs on the album as, despite her terror, the protagonist plans to move to Inverness, a town in Alvvays’ native Nova Scotia, to wait tables and raise her child.

The Belinda of the title is Belinda Carlisle who’s sugary 80’s pop hit ‘Heaven is a place on Earth’ seems to serve as the characters shaky and uncertain inspiration to carve out her own small slice of paradise.

Blue Rev sounds like the album that Alvvays have been trying to make for a long time. Whilst I have thoroughly enjoyed their previous efforts, it has often felt like they have been somewhat constrained. Whether they have not had the time to work on their productions as much as they have wanted to or just not had the confidence to do so is unclear, but Blue Rev certainly feels like the band have finally broken free from whatever was holding them back.

I found that I heard new parts on this album each time I listened to it and with 14 tracks of beautiful, hazy noise to get through there is a lot there to discover.

Passing Tide by Senica

Despite the name, the Dunedin sound was never strictly confined to one city. For example, whilst it most certainly started there, it had to look to a label based in Christchurch to find the widespread success that it did.

As a result there has always been a Dunedin musical presence in Ōtautahi, and across Aotearoa in general and despite being 40 years from the release of Dunedin Double, new local bands are still being influenced by the Dunedin Sound. Christchurch band Senica are certainly amongst that cohort.

Fronted by a pair of cousins, Theo Tudor and Jai Tudour-Oakley, who share song writing and vocal duties, Senica are a reasonably new band with most of its members not long out of school.

The EP Passing Tide is the band’s first release and despite the easy to make comparisons to the Dunedin bands of days gone by, the approach of having two songwriters working independently and bringing their best work to the group has yielded a range of styles in the space of the Eps 5 tracks.

‘Wide Awake’ for example starts of as a much more intricate affair than some of the other tracks and gradually builds to a wordless, guitar riff of a chorus that has more in common with bands like Foo Fighters than the Chills.

One of the more ambitious songs on the EP is the penultimate track ‘Under Their Feet’.

Ostensibly a break-up song, it showcases the bands ability to take a softer approach with the bouncy but subtle guitar lines accented by a twinkling piano that at times sounds almost psychedelic in places.

It is one of the more fleshed out feeling productions on the EP and despite the bands assertion that Theo Tudor wrote the melody when he was just 16, it comes across as one of their more mature compositions.

There is no getting around the fact that Passing Tide is rough around the edges. Whilst the production is well executed and the mix is well balanced, it lacks a certain presence or punch in places and there are times where I found myself wondering if the singer was hitting certain notes as intended.

But those rough edges and lack of pristine finish are all part of the charm here. The bands that they are clearly influenced by were more often than not focussed more on delivering a passionate performance rather than a perfect one and it is clear that Senica take a similar approach

Order of Romance by Jesca Hoop

Jesca hoop has always struck me as someone whose being is all but fully conveyed in her music.

An ex-Mormon who lost her faith at 16, she worked as a wilderness survival guide for a rehab program and a nanny to Tom Waits’ children before becoming a professional musician. Then, a decade ago she left her native California to make Manchester, England her home. Suffice to say she has lead an interesting and eclectic life so far, which she captures perfectly yet not always explicitly in her work.

Her latest album, Order of Romance continues that trend, yet it might be her most explicitly autobiographical work yet.

Whilst Hoop’s style has always shifted around and never been particularly easy to pin down, you can occasionally see specific influences in her work. From the very start Order of Romance has a feel of fellow émigré to the United Kingdom Aldous Harding about it. The slightly disjointed rhythms and melodic approaches that Harding has used on songs like ‘The Barrel’ are certainly part of the make-up of this album.

On the first listen you’re never quite sure where each song is going to take you, with unconventional instrumentation choices and melodic shifts abound.

It’s no surprise then that Order of Romance is produced by John Parish who has produced multiple records for Aldous Harding.

Motherhood is one of a couple of recurring themes on Order of Romance. In the first verse of ‘Sudden Light’, the albums opening track, Hoop discusses the deterioration of her relationship with her own mother which, if we’re to take her lyrics at face value, started when she was still a baby.

This loss of connection with her mother is revisited on the second song too.  The somewhat disconcerting ‘I Was Just 14’ covers the confusion and fear that Hoops parents and the religious community they were a part of, instilled in her with regards to sex and boys. Terror eventually gives way to curiosity but at the cost of her connection to her mother.

On other songs Hoop turns her attention to wider, more political issues. ‘7 Pounds of Pressure’ finds her taking up the role of President of the USA banning all guns and taking care of the angry men behind her constituents perceived need to bare arms.

‘Firestorm’ focuses on her home state of California and the huge, devastating fires that are now a yearly event for much of the parched west coast. It’s a lament, not just for horrors of climate change but also for a home lost to the elements.

One of the more devastating moments in an album that is not short on sadness and worry is the final track ‘Lyrebird’.

It follows a series of vignettes amongst the political turmoil of current day America. One character is Eve, the fearful but potentially misguided voter who only wants what is best for her family. Then there is the nameless mother, beside herself as her son joins the mobs storming the US Capitol. Through it all Hoop weaves the image of the Lyrebird, gleefully reproducing the sounds made by the chainsaws of the men who have come to destroy its home.