It feels like we say this on every other review at the moment (COVID genuinely screwed everyone’s release plans up, huh) but, after a five year absence, Canada’s Alvvays are back with swoonsome new single ‘Pharmacist’. Gorgeous breathy vocals and an indie-pop melody that would fit right at home on one of Camera Obscura’s finest records are positioned over an unyielding wall of keyboard and shoegaze distortion that breaks down and burns up into a chaotically delectable guitar solo.
With lyrics that are impossible to pin down but have something to do with bumping into an old flame’s sister at a chemist and then wanting to get back with them, alongside a reference to Nicorette anti-smoking products and a chorus that sounds suspiciously like trying to reassure a partner about his impotence or prematurity, in trustworthy fashion Alvvays cloak ruminative lyrics in exquisitely perky instrumentation and, like the possible subject of the chorus, it’s all done and dusted in just over two minutes.
‘Pharmacist’ was released on 9th July 2022 and is the first single from Alvvays’ much anticipated third album ‘Blue Rev’, due for release on 7th October 2022 through Polyvinyl/Transgressive and available to preorder now. You can see the tracklist below:
1. Pharmacist
2. Easy on Your Own?
3. After The Earthquake
4. Tom Verlaine
5. Pressed
6. Many Mirrors
7. Very Online Guy
8. Velveteen
9. Tile by Tile
10. Pomeranian Spinster
11. Belinda Says
12. Bored in Bristol
13. Lottery Noise
14. Fourth Figure
And you can listen to ‘Pharmacist’ on YouTube below: