The Clearing
Following the widescreen dream pop of 2021’s *Blue Weekend*, Wolf Alice felt some sonic skin shedding was in order for their fourth album. “We were thinking about what we were doing in a much more calculated way,” bassist Theo Ellis tells Apple Music’s Matt Wilkinson. “I don’t know whether it’s age or whether it’s having done this for the fourth time, but less was more with this record.” Recorded in LA with Adele/Paul McCartney producer Greg Kurstin, *The Clearing* finds the North London four-piece stripping back the alt-rock fuzz and shoegazey FX that had characterized their earlier releases for a more classic sound. One with a warm analog glow and rich FM radio-friendly melodies that positions them closer to ’70s soft rock than the 2010s indie scene from which they broke out. Listen closely, and there are nods to that golden era bubbling up throughout *The Clearing*: drummer Joel Amey’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover”-cribbing shuffle on “Leaning Against the Wall,” the ELO/Beach Boys chug that drives “Bread Butter Tea Sugar,” and guitarist Joff Oddie switching between breezy strumming, intricate fingerpicking, and searing melodic lines like *Rumours*-era Lindsey Buckingham. Such echoes reflect the band’s listening habits: a stack of records on heavy rotation in the studio that included Fleetwood Mac, George Harrison, and folk-rock outliers Pentangle. “This time, we weren’t afraid to give references. Maybe in the past I felt that I didn’t want to give them because then it would sound like that,” singer Ellie Rowsell says of the band’s touchstones when making *The Clearing*. “But now I felt much braver to say, *this* is my reference. I knew that it was going to sound like us because I understood what we were a bit more.” The wide-open space afforded by *The Clearing*’s musical palette allows Wolf Alice’s finest set of songs to date to shine. Whether it’s “Just Two Girls’” sparkling, disco-flecked pop, Rowsell’s hushed reflections on aging and motherhood on “Play It Out” or “White Horses”—a remarkable interpolation of folk and krautrock that startles without having to turn everything up into the red. “Maybe there are people who are scared of rock music that is soft. ‘Soft rock’ has felt like something I should never say out loud up until now,” reflects Rowsell. “I don’t care. I’m interested in music that you can play live that is energetic and performative without having to be all distortion pedals and shouting and fast and loud. I like that stuff still, but there’s certain songs that we have in our set where I’m like, ‘Why is this an “up” part of the set when it’s just a good acoustic guitar?’ Or, ‘How come I feel like I am giving 100 percent when I’m not stomping around on stage screaming in people’s faces?’”
Now in their thirties, Wolf Alice are out of the woods of their twenties, settling into new levels of self-acceptance and self-assurance.
On their fourth album, 'The Clearing,' London band Wolf Alice funnel the confusion of their early thirties into a pastiche of styles.
These songs are built to be inhabited: headphones become immersion tanks, and living rooms become stages.
Wolf Alice once again prove they’re a band constantly evolving, and more willing than ever to push themselves into bold new territory
Lyrically knowing and sonically eclectic, the fourth album from London four-piece Wolf Alice pushes indie-rock forward.
Wolf Alice have reached the end of one chapter, and are ready to write the next. Their long-time deal with Dirty Hit now at a finish, the band have signed
With ‘The Clearing,’ Wolf Alice adds new colors to their already varied sonic palette but retains its signature punch.
On The Clearing, Wolf Alice appear to be searching and, for once, lack the originality that made them household names. It's a mid-career misstep.
The Clearing by Wolf Alice album review by Emre Gurdal Northern Transmissions. The UK band's LP is out today via Columbia Records
Even Ellie Rowsell’s velveteen vocals can’t rescue the band’s unapologetic attempt to ape Fleetwood Mac