Molly Rankin (b. 1987) sings, plays guitar, and writes songs in the terrific Canadian indie rock band Alvvays (pronounced "always").

She comes from a noted Canadian music family. The Rankin Family has been performing Celtic Cape Breton folk music together since 1989, winning a bunch of awards along the way (including six Junos, the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy). All the Rankins are from the tiny village of Mabou, Nova Scotia, on the west coast of Cape Breton. (Trivia: Cartoonist Kate Beaton is also from Mabou!) Molly's father, John Morris Rankin, was a core member of the group until he was killed in a car accident in 2000.

But instead of folk, Molly decided to go the rock route, starting Alvvays with Alec O'Hanley (late of the underrated PEI band Two Hours Traffic) in 2011. They've released three albums, each excellent: Alvvays (2013), Antisocialites (2017), and Blue Rev (2022). That last one, the most shoegaze-y of the bunch, ended up on many end-of-year best albums lists; it ranked No. 1 on the lists of Stereogum and Exclaim, No. 3 on Pitchfork's and Paste's, No. 7 on The New York Times list, and high on Rolling Stone's, NPR's, and The Guardian's. (Pitchfork: "Astonishingly great...a record that finally is large enough to contain the band’s splendor. Every song on Blue Rev is a feast, done up with effortless élan. It is a deep dive through the history of pop and rock, down into the abyss of what its future might look like.")

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