| Pharmacist | |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Alvvays |
| Album: | Blue Rev |
| Released: | July 6, 2022 |
| Length: | 2:04 |
| Label: | |
| Producer: | Shawn Everett |
| Prev Title: | Plimsoll Punks |
| Prev Year: | 2017 |
| Next Title: | Easy On Your Own? |
| Next Year: | 2022 |
"Pharmacist" is a single by Canadian indie pop band Alvvays, released on July 6, 2022 via Polyvinyl. The song is the opening track and first single from the band's 2022 album, Blue Rev.[1] The single is the band's first release since 2017's Antisocialites.[2]
"Pharmacist" is an indie pop,[3] [4] shoegaze,[5] [6] [7] bedroom pop and noise pop[8] song. The song ends with a guitar solo, which NME described as "extravagant" and "ripping".[9] The track was compared to My Bloody Valentine's guitar-heavy shoegaze album, Loveless. Lead vocalist Molly Rankin's vocals are low in the mix in comparison to the instrumental.[10] [11]
The song's lyrics tell the story of unexpectedly meeting someone at a pharmacy. NPR wrote the lyrics are "short and memorable, but don't necessarily portray any one narrative". Loud and Quiet described the "vivid details" of the lyrics as creating a "beguiling short story".[12]
Quinn Moreland of Pitchfork gave the song their "Best New Music" accolade. Moreland wrote, "[the song] is overblown in all the right ways, with all the meticulously layered noise growing into a thicket around [Molly] Rankin’s tender nostalgia". Stereogum staff ranked the song first in their "The 5 Best Songs Of The Week" list for the week of July 8, 2022. They wrote, the song "sounds less like one of their fully-formed indie-pop songs and more like an appetizer for the album". BrooklynVegan described the song as a "big-sounding first taste of the album".[13]
Paste wrote on the track, the band "[makes] clear their intention to rough things up a bit".[14] Clash described the track as "an expansive opener, with snarling guitars that meld into empyreal enchantment".[15] NME compared the track to previous Alvvays works; they said Molly Rankin's vocals have a newfound clarity and Alec O’Hanley’s guitars "swirl with more vengeance and energy than before". BeatsPerMinute called the track a contender for song of the year. They wrote, the track's "distortion and dreaminess is amped up from Antisocialites".