Since I started these Top 10s, Wolf Alice was always going to be on the list. I just wanted the dust to settle on the bands fourth release, 'The Clearing'. Another exceptional effort, in a generational run by Britain's best band.
So here goes.
The third and final single from 'The Clearing' see's the band embrace a folk driven sound, and drummer Joel Amey take lead vocals for the first time since 2015's 'Swallowtail'. A heartfelt reflection of heritage, identity and family. With crisp rustic instrumentation, and one of the album's biggest choruses. It's a song that has been on heavy rotation since its release. A confident and celebratory affair, when the questioning quiets down and he chooses to be content with his family and who he is.
It's a sound that although not explored before, the band nail with ease. Everything they seem to touch works. There's a confidence within this new era of Wolf Alice, finally content with their position in the world, and ready to take over. 2025 has the potential to be the biggest year for the band yet. Having ended their record deal with Dirty Hit and signed with major label RCA. An arena tour is pencilled in. It's a great time to be a fan of the band.
The opening song from the bands Mercury Prize winning second album 'Visions of a Life' an ethereal beginning that marked the bands second era. With nods to 90s shoegaze within the guitars and dream like vocals, it marked a change for the North London indie upstarts.
In an interview with the NME, Ellie Rowsell said: " “If we had an inkling of an idea, even if it seemed a bit silly, we’d try it out and see what happened." The band went in as an open book, and the results across the whole record are staggering.
'Heavenward' is one of the most underrated songs from that record. It's one that I don't here fans talking about as much as some of the other songs from that unbelievable album but in my opinion it has everything that makes Wolf Alice great. Joel Amey, and Theo Ellis as one of the best rhythm sections of the modern era, Joff Odie's snarling guitars and Ellie Rowsell turning a muted verse, into a stadium anthem by the first chorus. It's spectacular.
The second single from 'Blue Weekend' and the better older sibling to 'Yuk Foo', 'Smile' sees the band turn the amps up to elven with devastating affect. Rowsell takes the criticism that her and the band received for 'Yuk Foo'. Particularly the line Rowsell screamed: “I wanna fuck all of the people I meet.” Over crunching riffs, the present-day version of her shoots down the world’s attempts to put her in a box and tell her how she should be. “And now you all think I’m unhinged/Wind her up and this honeybee stings,” she sneers at one point. “Did you think I was a puppet on strings?/Wind her up and this honeybee sings.”
This was quite the jump from the piano led emotional epic of a first single 'The Last Man on the Earth'.