Canadian dream-and-jangle pop quartet Alvvays’s recently released sophomore album Antisocialites (2017) has received critical acclaim, paving the way for what a successful tour across Europe and North America: “nothing but thoroughly accomplished songs” (Pitchfork); “a wealth of stories and insights to be found” (PopMatters); “full of fuzzy-guitar beauty and shoegazing romanticism” (Rolling Stone); “alluring, nuanced jangle pop” (The Guardian).
I had already reviewed the sublimely melancholic “Dreams Tonite” when the single was released in August, but the recently released music video deserves a special mention. The idea of inserting yourself into archival footage may not be novel - see Cults’ eerie use of the 1978 Jonestown mass murder-suicide in the music video for “Go Outside” - but Alvvays elevates retromania to impossibly nostalgic heights by deftly traveling fifty years back in time, to Montreal’s 1967 International and Universal Exposition. The expo coincided with Canada's centennial year, drawing 60 participating nations and 90 pavillions to Montréal to celebrate the “Man and His World” theme. Some of the highlights from the fields of fashion, science and architecture can be viewed in the video, but Alvvays are probably more interested in the 6,000 star-studded free concerts that took place on the Expo grounds.
Given the band’s timeless sound and the song’s main theme of bittersweet unfulfilled longing ("If I saw you on the street, would I have you in my dreams tonight, tonight?"), this is peak audio-visual synergy: “Canada was at its coolest 50 years ago in Montreal at Expo ’67. We fetishize retro-futurism and are thrilled our buddy Matt Johnson was able to facilitate our half-century temporal trip back to peak pop and op” (Alvvays, Pitchfork).
The inclusion of subtly multicultural and cosmopolitan scenes from the Expo - amidst all that Western technology-driven utopianism - was also a nice touch, given the divisive political climate.
