Saint Alvia

For better or worse, Saint Alvia's latest album makes for an exhausting listen. Crafted with endless energy and enthusiasm, Static Psalms carries the Southern Ontario super-group's trend of stripping punk's attitude of its aggression and replacing it with pure, unfiltered charisma. The result is a series of songs that range from the bouncy ("When I Die") to the brash ("OK USA"), with a middle ground that finds its footing somewhere between Gaslight Anthem's retro-rock aesthetic and the Clash's diverse '80s albums. The stylistic changes can be drastic, like when dance-y numbers "The Commute" and "Get Up and Go" transition into the barroom sing-along of album closer "Not Our World," but regardless of each song's success rate the result is always the same: anthemic. That it was released in the dead of winter isn't important. With Static Psalms, Saint Alvia have created the summer's first success.