For the past decade, Wolf Alice have slowly been building their reputation as one of the defining bands in British indie rock. While early hits like ‘Don’t Delete the Kisses’ and ‘Bros’ put them on the map, it wasn’t until their third album, Blue Weekend, that their rough edges fell away. From the swooping ‘Delicious Things’ to the scuzzy screams of ‘Play the Greatest Hits’ to the twisted lullaby of ‘Safe From Heartbreak (if i never fall in love)’, Blue Weekend elevated them to new heights. After its overwhelming critical success, it felt almost like there was nowhere higher for the band to go.
Flash forward four years, and in strides The Clearing. Wolf Alice have challenged themselves to make their most ambitious, accomplished album yet – and they have succeeded with flying colours. Take the lead single, ‘Bloom Baby Bloom’, which opens with a funky piano riff before making way for a soaring chorus: “I’ll bloom, baby, bloom”, vocalist Ellie Rowsell sings atop a richly layered instrumental composition. And bloom, they have.
Instead, each song on The Clearing seems to unpredictably twist and turn
Elsewhere, the western jauntiness of ‘Leaning Against a Wall’ offers a mid-album switch, as does the lounge jazz of ‘Two Girls’. On ‘White Horses’, the band switch things up even further, with drummer Joel Amey taking on vocal duties for the first time. But the sonic swerves don’t just happen in between songs.
Instead, each song on The Clearing seems to unpredictably twist and turn, with each becoming a patchwork of sounds, inspirations, and genres, as they glide effortlessly between 70s rock (‘Just Two Girls’), Americana (‘Passenger Seat’), folk (‘Leaning Against the Wall’) and full-on orchestral arrangements (‘Midnight Song’). Nowhere is this more obvious than on mid-album belter, ‘Bread Butter Tea Sugar’. While it starts with a burst of swaggering rock, it soon pivots into a bombastic piano-and-guitar break, all before unfurling into a spoken word interlude. If almost any other band made this song, it would feel out of joint. The fact that it works – and works so well – is a testament to Wolf Alice’s musical prowess.
[‘The Sofa’] marks a confident growth from their earlier sound and themes,
But The Clearing doesn’t just find the band embracing more sonic risks; their lyrics have also matured in step. Gone are the late-night tales told on ‘Blue Weekend’, replaced instead with ruminations on life, ageing, and the inevitable passage of time. “I want to age with excitement / Feel my world expand / Go grey and feel delighted / Don’t just look sexy on a man”, Rowsell sings on the confessional ballad ‘Play It Out’.
The album ends with ‘The Sofa’, where Rowsell wraps up her ruminations on life by lamenting the future she imagined for herself: “Didn’t make it out to California / Where I thought I might clean the slate / Feels a little like I’m stuck in Seven Sisters / North London, or England / And maybe that’s OK”. It’s more than “OK” – it marks a confident growth from their earlier sound and themes, even if this sees them back in Seven Sisters rather than California.
To call The Clearing a testament to Wolf Alice being at their best would be a disservice to the band. For, indeed, when Blue Weekend came out, the same could have been said of them back then. Instead, The Clearing is the decisive next step for a band that only seem to be getting better and better.
Recommended listening: ‘The Sofa’
Words: Sophie Flint Vázquez
Images: Press, Rachel Fleminger Hudson
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