Blink Twice (Extended)

Two years into the COVID-19 outbreak, “the pandemic album” has become a genre unto itself, implying a certain isolated atmosphere and introspective tone. But Arkells’ Blink Twice is a different sort of pandemic album—one that’s less a product of aesthetic impulse than strategic circumstance. The Hamilton, Ontario, rock polymaths’ eighth album is actually a savvy way to extend the shelf life of their seventh, 2021’s Blink Once, which dropped just as the band was taking its first, tentative post-lockdown steps back to the stage but didn’t get to enjoy the full muscle of the Arkells’ stage show to support it. As singer/guitarist Max Kerman tells Apple Music, “We were looking around and just seeing friends’ bands put out albums that kind of evaporated into thin air because you couldn’t tour them. So, we were like, ‘We don’t want that to happen. How do we put out some music [with Blink Once], but then also have more music coming so that, when touring does resume, we’re able to have something fresh, and it doesn’t just feel like we’re touring a record that came out a year and a half ago?’” But Blink Twice is no quick-serve batch of reheated leftovers. Like all great sequels, it takes the defining qualities of its predecessor—the soul-baring, Springsteen-schooled songcraft, the rap-flirtatious production, the crossover collaborations—and blows them up to IMAX proportions. And to help them realise that maximalist vision, Arkells lined up more guest features than a DJ Khaled project, corralling a parade of formative influences (Joel Plaskett, Tegan and Sara), alt-pop peers (Lights, Cœur de pirate) and newer connections (Jake Clemons, The Lumineers’ Wesley Schultz) that functions as a This Is Your Life microcosm of the Arkells’ unlikely journey from indie underdogs to Canadian radio stars. “There’s so much fun collaboration that happens in basically every other genre outside of rock ’n’ roll, and I get jealous of it,” Kerman says. “And also, I’m kind of tired of my own voice