Kiwi Jr. are a Toronto-based band whose members originally came from Prince Edward Island, where they knew each other from playing in different bands as teenagers. After eventually reconnecting in Toronto, Jeremy Gaudet and drummer Brohan Moore started playing together in Alvvays’ basement while that band was away on tour. What began with the idea of making quiet, twee indie rock eventually grew into the guitar-driven sound heard on their first three albums.
“We wanted to make sure that when you hear the album, you can close your eyes and imagine where the instruments are in a room. A lot of modern records sound collage-like to me because there are too many tracks; it’s all piled on top of each other.” - Jeremy Gaudet -
For Blowin’ Up, their fourth album and first in four years, the band left Toronto for Detroit, spending two weeks recording at High Bias Studios with Graham Walsh. Rather than building the songs piece by piece, they recorded live and kept overdubs to a minimum. The idea was to give the instruments room and capture the feel of four musicians playing together live. The result is music that’s both loose and super clean. You can hear what each member of the band is doing. The guitars are especially good, with lines that weave in and out of the songs without getting buried under layers of production.
But none of that would matter if the songs weren’t there, and Blowin’ Up is filled with them. There’s a strong melody running through every track, with great verses that lead into sing along choruses that stick with you. Gaudet’s lyrics are equally sharp, filled with smart, witty observations about everyday life and the people and situations around him.
This is a good one.
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