“The Clearing,” the fourth full-length album by London band Wolf Alice, is one of the most anticipated albums of 2025. Especially after the success of their previous album, “Blue Weekend,” which took them to the top of the British charts and into the spotlight of international critics. This sweet success led to the band signing a contract with major label RCA Records. Then, resulting in them leaving Dirty Hit, the record label of reference for the independent scene.
The versatility of Wolf Alice
The mix of alternative rock, dream pop, and shoegaze, not without a touch of grunge at the beginning of their career, has proved very convincing, thanks to the skill of the band members and the warm voice of Ellie Rowsell, who demonstrates great versatility in tackling such an open musical field.
Mission: recapturing a certain 1970s
From what could be gleaned from the press releases preceding the release of “The Clearing,” the band’s intention was to recapture a certain 1970s sound similar to Fleetwood Mac. This programmatic intent, however fascinating, raised suspicions of an album constructed at a desk, less sincere than their previous works. For this reason, we listened to this work particularly carefully and attentively.
The first track on Wolf Alice new album
“The Clearing” opens with “Thorns.” The first piano chords immediately remind us of the Beatles. But Ellie‘s voice brings us back to the world of Wolf Alice. The vocals are reminiscent of the 1970s, of course, but the band’s compositional and melodic flair is also immediately apparent. “Thorns” is a very strong track with a precise melodic structure that already indicates the direction of the album. The keyboards suggest an orchestration typical of certain arrangements of the 1960s, with the difference that these were performed by real orchestras.
The first single “Bloom Baby Bloom”
The second track, “Bloom Baby Bloom,” was the first single released for this new album. It is a fast-paced interplay between piano, bass, and drums led by handclaps, and then Ellie‘s sometimes shouted, sometimes melodic vocals, making it one of the most rhythmic and enthralling tracks on “The Clearing”.
“the peculiarity of this album is that it changes musical scenery with each track”
But the peculiarity of this album is that it changes musical scenery with each track, and so “Just Two Girl” starts off like a 1960s advertising jingle, so captivating that we wonder if we are really listening to Wolf Alice, and even the introduction of a vaguely dissonant keyboard increases the feeling of strangeness, but the result is once again a winner.
“the magic explodes”
“Leaning Against The Wall” is folk rock with sections of pure dream pop, challenging us with an ever-changing sound that amazes us at every turn. “Passenger Seat” is a country ballad that you immediately fall in love with. Music has rediscovered its freedom beyond the boundaries set by genres, which too often slow down our perception, weighed down by the mania for reassuring categorization. With “Play It Out,” the magic explodes. Soft and delicate psychedelic snow falls on enchanted notes, and for a moment we become children again and find ourselves listening to the sounds of the world as we look out the window of the universe, while a distant Barberia organ reaches us like a distant echo.
Between Swinging London and Steppenwolf
“Bread Butter Tea Sugar” takes us to swinging London, and we feel like we’re walking arm in arm with the Beatles as we cross the street to Abbey Road. Theo Ellis and Joel Amey, bassist and drummer of Wolf Alice, guide us with a relentless but never aggressive march into a world of musical nuances where Joel Amey‘s guitar and Ellie Rowsell’s warm and persuasive voice reign supreme. “Safe in the World,” on the other hand, echoes Steppenwolf‘s world on the road but doesn’t take us too far from home.
Wolf Alice are reaching stellar heights
But the doors of wonder swing wide open with the next track, “Midnight Song,” which opens a triptych of songs that take “The Clearing” to stellar heights. A delicate guitar arpeggio introduces Ellie‘s voice, which is very reminiscent of Elisabeth Fraser‘s “Sun’s Signature”. Echoes and reverberations transport us to a soft dreamlike universe from which we never want to leave. Wolf Alice‘s ability to create different soundscapes while maintaining the same quality in both composition and production is a trait that makes them unique.
The uniqueness of “White Horses”
The uniqueness of a track like “White Horses,” in which drummer Joel Amey becomes the lead vocalist, as he did in the past with “Swallowtail” (from the debut album “Love Is Cool”), is evident from the very first bars. The opening features a rhythm guitar immediately followed by bass and upbeat drums with a Can-style “motorik” feel. Ellie‘s voice comes in after Joel‘s lead vocals and then blends in. The song reminds me of the best moments of Minimal Compact, both in its rhythmic solutions and in the alternation of voices, which come to a Beatles-esque conclusion for what is, to all intents and purposes, a memorable track.
The final words
The finale is entrusted to “The Sofa,” a breathtakingly beautiful song, a soft song, as the title suggests, which takes Wolf Alice to a very high level of melodic development, and even the orchestral arrangements are of great elegance. In conclusion, “The Clearing” succeeds in its intent to restore a blatantly vintage modern rock sound without compromising on quality, thanks above all to the ability of this close-knit quartet, who believed in their project until the very end, challenging conventions without losing their identity. An album so rich in different moods and nuances that, at its best, it writes pages of music that will surely remain in the annals of rock history.
Line Up
- Ellie Rowsell – vocals, guitar, piano, bass.
- Joff Oddie – guitar, piano, backing vocals
- Theo Ellis – bass, programming.
- Joel Amey – drums, percussion, synth, backing vocals, guitar.
Tracklist
- Thorns
- Bloom Baby Bloom
- Just Two Girls
- Leaning Against The Wall
- Passenger Seat
- Play It Out
- Bread Butter Tea Sugar
- Safe In The World
- Midnight Song
- White Horses
- The Sofa