KIWI JR. - BLOWIN' UP
If ever there was a need to soundtrack the current state of North American relations it is in this turbulent year of 2026, and Toronto's Kiwi Jr. have unassumingly stepped up to the plate with their masterfully crafted fourth long-player, the aptly titled Blowin' Up. Recorded in Detroit, MI with Canadian producer Graham Walsh and released on the long-running Olympia, WA indie label K Records, the album is peppered with Canadian and American collaborators alike. With members of American rockers Protomartyr and Canadian indie darlings Alvvays making appearances, it almost gives a glimmer of hope for cross-border cooperation amidst a seemingly never ending trade war.
It should come as no surprise that Blowin' Up is Kiwi Jr.'s strongest release to date -- their discography reads like a collection of badges on an indie-rock Boy Scout uniform, starting with their debut on Canadian label Mint, followed by two excellent releases on Sub Pop. Having worked with producers ranging from Espanola's Aaron Goldstein to Wolf Parade's Dan Boeckner, clearly something clicked with Graham Walsh, who previously produced the band's sophomore LP, Cooler Returns.
During the recording sessions for Blowin' Up, Walsh spent every waking and sleeping hour in High Bias studios while the band rented a house in Detroit for the duration of the sessions. This magical cross-border working vacation is captured on the standout track "Pure Michigan," which recalls a youth spent border-hopping, trying and failing to get cell phone reception on each respective side of the border, "losing perspective on the Ambassador Bridge," and navigating a nineteen-year-old vs. twenty-one-year-old drinking age in each respective country. Now that's Pure Michigan!
Likewise, "Hard Drive, Ontario" details the struggles of leaving home, leaving your "heart on a hard drive," while acknowledging the near impossibility of traversing the GTA and indeed much of the province with the ever bottle-necked 400-series highways that connect the disparate cities that comprise Ontario. This is the sound of Kiwi Jr. finally achieving what they have long been hinting at, crafting clever lyrics that get to the heart of real issues, marrying style and substance in equal measure.
Like every preceding Kiwi Jr. release, Blowin' Up wisely doesn't overstay it's welcome. Clocking in at a lean, mean ten songs in thirty-five minutes, the band have leveraged their strengths, namely the ability to conjure fully-realized three-and-a-half minute indie-rock gems. However, album-closer "Landscape With Limousine" hints at the band maturing and stretching their songwriting, painting a sonic portrait of Canada from the perspective of the Trans Canada Highway spread over a five-minute canvas. As the band themselves acknowledge in the press release for the album, they've done some throwin' up, growin' up, and now they are poised for Blowin' Up.
Regardless of which side of the border you reside in, do yourself a favour and give Blowin' Up a spin, and catch a Kiwi Jr. show while you're at it. It won't end the trade war, but for half an hour it might just remind you that it won't last forever.
-Leks Maltby