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Archie, Marry Me

A song about marriage and student loans, put online as a demo and then the band's breakthrough.
Alvvays, from Alvvays (2013)

Written by
Molly Rankin, Alec O'Hanley
Released
6 April 2013
Length
3:17
Album
Alvvays

Rankin wrote it with O'Hanley at a rural farmhouse on Prince Edward Island, during a heavy snowstorm. She recalled that they had a snowmobile to get to the road but ended up burying it. She described the song as an open assessment on the idea of marriage, and the character Archie is fictitious, named after her cousin Archie Rankin. She confirmed that the title is not a reference to Archie Comics. Its lyric rhymes matrimony with alimony.

It was first put online as a demo on 6 April 2013, then recorded in March 2013 at Yoko Eno in Calgary with drums by Eric Hamelin. The video, directed by Gavin Keen and Allison Johnston and released on 30 July 2014, was shot by the band on Super 8 film after they decided that a professional crew did not feel like them. The song did not chart but is described as the band's breakthrough, and Rolling Stone placed it 28th on its list of the best songs of the 2010s. Ben Gibbard has covered it. Rankin told the Ringer that people propose to her often because of it.

Covers and versions

More songs by Alvvays

Dreams Tonite, Pharmacist, Easy on Your Own?, Belinda Says

Sources

  1. Archie, Marry Me, Wikipedia
  2. The Beautiful Blue Twisted Fantasies of Alvvays, The Ringer (2022-10-06)
  3. Alvvays: Antisocialites Album Review, Pitchfork (2017-09-07)