‘Kite’: The record that proved pivotal to the sound of Alvvays
While Alvvays are celebrated for their ability to fuse elements of shoegaze with their jangly indie pop, it’s clear that their main influences lie within the far more melodic latter genre classification. Rapidly becoming regarded as one of the most consistent groups active today and having received increasing amounts of critical acclaim for each of their three albums, their songwriting duo of Molly Rankin and Alec O’Hanley have perfected their songwriting formula and know exactly how to tap into it where necessary on their music.
With some of their most obvious inspirations coming from artists ranging from The Smiths to Cocteau Twins, Rankin has also expressed a love for the likes of The Replacements and Teenage Fanclub in the past, all of which rear their heads in the sound of Alvvays. However, Rankin was also raised in a musical household, with her father, John, being a fiddler in the Canadian folk group The Rankin Family.
To have been raised in an environment with such a rich and varied musical grounding, it’s understandable that Rankin has perhaps a greater understanding of being able to craft simple yet captivating pop music than most artists do and why it comes so effortlessly to her. However, there’s one artist in particular who she claims to have changed everything for her, and who dramatically shaped her songwriting style.
Speaking to The Line of Best Fit, Rankin ran through some of the most important albums in her life and enthused at length about Kirsty MacColl’s 1989 album Kite, a record she claimed to have first picked up from a high street record store in Halifax, Canada. Having been discovering and indulging in the aural pleasures of the aforementioned influences at the time, MacColl was a new discovery for her, and her world was changed when she first listened to the record.
“I couldn’t believe her vocals, her delivery and attitude,” exclaimed Rankin, speaking about the initial experience of hearing the album. “With all of the arrangements it was like The Smiths were playing, but this beacon vocal was slicing through everything.” MacColl was noted for having had quite the pair of lungs on her, and every line in her songs was emphatically sung with passion.
Continuing to rhapsodise about the record, Rankin said how hearing it was “a pivotal moment” for her and that it played a big part in encouraging her to be in a band. “I really wanted to do that,” enthused the singer, “to be a part of a dynamic where you have so much emphasis on guitar melody, but a vocal that somehow remains central. I was just beginning to write songs that felt like they could be for a band, and she was a perfect blueprint to strive for.”
It’s understandable that Rankin would have latched onto the album, having already been a fan of the Smiths, as Johnny Marr’s guitar playing can be heard on a number of the songs on the record, and MacColl even co-wrote a couple of the songs with the guitarist.
Rankin’s love for MacColl would extend far beyond just this record, as Alvvays would end up covering another of her songs, ‘He’s on the Beach’, as part of their live set. Commenting on this early tribute to the late MacColl, Rankin said: “It was a pretty bold choice to try to do justice to. Kirsty is someone we’ve always held so close to our hearts.”
