Blue Weekend

Album review

Perhaps the most exciting rock band in the UK right now, Wolf Alice prove they're ready for the summer festival season with their third album—the follow-up to the London four-piece's Mercury Prize-winning Visions of a Life. Right off, they let you know with "The Beach" and its slow build that swells and crashes like, well, storm waves on the beach. This isn't surf rock—more a show of the unpredictable and overwhelming elements—but it's as evocative as they come, positively waning at the end. A similar trick is used on "Delicious Things," a gentle shuffle that breaks wide open into a glorious expanse and heavenly chorus. Singer Ellie Rowsell sings the verses with a sneaky little melody (hints of early Lily Allen here) and slightly hushed delivery, like she's gleefully speaking into the phone with her hand covering her mouth—both to hide her smile and keep a secret. "I'm in the Hollywood Hills … if you're up popping pills you know I won't say no," she sings, her delightful British pronunciation of "Los Angeleees" making the place sound like Mecca. Elsewhere, she takes no shit: "Don't call me mad/ There's a difference, I'm angry/ And your choice to call me cute has offended me," she spits against a bottom-heavy groove. Call it a resistance to how, still, today, female musicians are being pigeonholed. "Play the Greatest Hits" finds her using a bratty playground chant to keep up with the rumbling bass, speeding guitar and drums—the whole irresistible thing sounding like the wheels could come off at any second. (If this song were a car, flames would be shooting out the tailpipe.) There are other enchanting surprises. The catchy, hypnotic "Safe from Heartbreak" is almost ABBA-like, while "No Hard Feelings" plays a gentle, campfire melody. "Feeling Myself" starts off comedown-slow, then turns majestic, and Rowsell draws out the verses of "How Can I Make It OK?” like honey dripping from one syllable to the next, before switching to a crisp staccato for the chorus. And power ballad "The Last Man on Earth" is a stunner. Rowsell has said the lyrics are about "the arrogance of humans," and her words cut like a hot knife: “And every book you take and you dust from the shelf / Has lines between lines between lines / That you read about yourself ... You were the first person here and the last man on earth / But does a light shine on you?" © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz