Wolf Alice’s The Clearing is an academic account with cinematic scope

The piano-led album continues Wolf Alice's impeccable impression in the music world.

Wolf Alice have fast become my favourite active bands, with Blue Weekend sitting as my number one album of the last decade. So the expectations going into The Clearing were unachievably high. 

The jazz nuances and clever pushing-pulling structure of leading single ‘Bloom Baby Bloom’ kept the buzz boiling. The masterful composition and delicacy of ‘The Sofa’ with its glorious Ellie Rowsell harmonies turned things up to 11 and then came ‘White Horses’ – a Joel Amey delivered vocal performance that is both catchy and ethereal.

Cut to The Clearing. While it’s not quite the level of Blue Weekend, it is still a superb songbook.

Wolf Alice – The Clearing

Release Date: Out Now

Label: Mushroom Music

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A James Bond theme worthy opener kicks things into gear. ‘Thorns’ places emphasis on strings and piano, driving forces across the album. It’s a song that is reflective of their experienced playing, using academic structures of music making to showcase their skills. 

‘Just Two Girls’ and ‘Bread Butter Tea Sugar’ are playful additions, with the latter feeling like a Magical Mystery Tour track. The former drives home Rowsell’s expressive lyricism centred around social commentary.

Perhaps it’s the nature of where I find myself in my life as a female who has just entered the realm of motherhood, but ‘Play It Out’ got the goosebumps and lump in throat going. ‘Play It Out’ offers stunning commentary on the aging experience as a woman and the pressures to join the motherhood train in a stripped back piano ballad, and ‘Safe In The World’ is another standout track – deliciously delicate but with a quiet confidence.  

The Clearing is a commitment to intellectual forms of composition – jazz drumming, thoughtful instrumentation and self-aware, mature songwriting that taps into themes of identity and self-acceptance. It’s all served up with crisp production thanks to Greg Kurstin, and slots in perfectly to the bands catalogue.   

Listen to the full album here.