Von Christoph Sepin
When you move to the country, you can do a lot: You can eat a lot of peaches, like The Presidents of the United States of America have sung it. Or like Blur in hers „Country House“ Watch reruns on TV. “He lives in a house, a very big house in the country”. Or you do it like Alvvays and decide for a modest life, start a family, try the happiness of the small world.
Alvweiss from Toronto, Ontario have been consistently releasing wonderfully dreamy guitar music for almost ten years. Distorted, washed-out walls of sound can sound pretty bad with other bands, with Alvvays they are fluffy clouds that you can snuggle into. All good also in the biggest hit of the group, „Archie, Marry Me“ from 2014.
“Belinda Says” is somehow the sequel to it, because following the wedding with Archie comes the desire for a family and a traditional existence. “Moving to the country, gonna have that baby” is the central line. “Wait tables in town, I know word gets around”. Move to the country, have children, then maybe work a bit as a waitress to earn money. Word will get around. But it quickly becomes clear that none of this is meant to be taken seriously.
- At Sunday songs on FM4
- The esteemed science and pop journalists Thomas Kramar and Heide Rampetzreiter are also present in the press on Sunday their thoughts on the same song.
Because, as in her “Archie, Marry Me”, in “Belinda Says” Alvvays are not so interested in actually getting married or having children or moving to the country, but in the idea of simple happiness. It’s all so simple, can you just turn your back on everything that’s depressing and that makes life so difficult? Look, over there is the rainbow and the happy ending, you just have to be humble. “And we’ll start another life”.
And who is the eponymous Belinda in this song? According to Alvvays, this is a reference to Belinda Carlisle. The Californian musician has played in the Go-Go’s and is probably best known for her song “Heaven Is A Place On Earth”. You only have to read it and then you already have the melody in your head. “Bеlinda says that heaven is a place on еarth, well so is hell,” sings Alvvays vocalist Molly Rankin. Because of course it’s not that easy with the small town utopia. Such a real paradise, with all the kitsch, the romance and the simple happiness, doesn’t really exist. Even if you wish for it in a song.
“Paradise and I find myself paralyzed, knowing all too well terrified,” Rankin sings. “But I’ll find my way”. Because if you play the instruments like the Alvvays do, you always leave room for a little bit of hope. Maybe it’s not as easy as just moving to the country and starting a new life. Maybe that takes a lot more work and maybe you already have the place you want to go inside of you, but you have to find it first. Music by Alvvays definitely helps. The new album “Blue Rev” will be released on October 7th.
