Four years since their last album, and ten years since their debut, Wolf Alice are back; ‘The Clearing’ sees the band take a more pop-aligned approach, swapping heavy guitar riffs heard in earlier albums for piano and strings. This makes sense when you find out the album was recorded with Grammy-winning producer Greg Kurstin, famous for his work with Adele and Paul McCartney. However, unlike some alternative bands that try and fail to tune into a softer sound to achieve mainstream success, Wolf Alice have done it right. The band have matured and grown since they started ten years ago, and this shows; this album is their most refined release yet.
Ellie Rowsell’s vocals are the standout on every track; she ranges from delicate and airy on ‘Midnight Song’ to ferocious and powerful on ‘Bloom Baby Bloom’. Her powerful vocals are accompanied by layered instrumentals made up of strings, piano and soft guitar, giving each track an ethereal feeling. It’s clear that this album is inspired by the 70s, but this is done in a way that feels original rather than an imitation.
Lyrics are another standout; the album explores themes of love, maturity and reflection. ‘Play It Out,’ for example, is notably one of the best songs they’ve released so far. The piano ballad sees Ellie sing about the pressures of being a woman, from aging to the expectation of motherhood. “I wanna age with excitement, feel my world expand/ Go grey and feel delighted, don’t just look sexy on a man.” The track ‘White Horses,’ similarly, explores themes of identity and self acceptance. It features a rare vocal appearance from drummer Joel Amey, who wrote the lyrics about discovering his heritage. Though the lyrics do get slightly repetitive as the song progresses, the catchiness makes up for it.
Though each song on the album is perfectly crafted, some songs do blend into each other due to the similarities of their formula. The album is their most cohesive, but part of Wolf Alice’s charm is their diversity of genre. On each Wolf Alice album there’s at least one big heavy-rock anthem, such as ‘Play The Greatest Hits’ and ‘Formidable Cool,’ and that’s the one thing this album is missing. ‘Bloom Baby Bloom’ is the closest thing to that, but it doesn’t quite live up to that. ‘Bread Butter Tea Sugar,’ ‘Just Two Girls’ and ‘Safe In The World’, for example, are three incredibly well-written songs, but could they have been missed in exchange for another signature Wolf Alice punk-inspired tune? Possibly.
The album closes with ‘The Sofa,’ which is arguably the best song on the record. The song utilises each element of ‘The Clearing’ perfectly. The vocals are effortlessly gorgeous, paired alongside a beautiful instrumental that feels like it should feature on the soundtrack of a coming-of-age film. The lyrics are specific to Wolf Alice’s experiences of life in a band, but they can also be related to anyone’s experiences of grappling with self-acceptance. “Hope I can accept the wild thing in me/ hope nobody comes to tame her.” Everybody knows how it feels to try and find peace within one’s self, and this song summarises it well.
Wolf Alice are only getting better with each album, as their sound continues to evolve and mature. ‘The Clearing’ establishes the band as one of the best of their generation, and lives up to the expectations from fans. The band also leave themselves even more room to grow; the album isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty close. It only creates even more anticipation for what they’ll release next.
8/10
