Speaking in the run up to the release of Wolf Alice’s third album, singer Ellie Rowsell gave some insight as to where her and the rest of the quartet’s heads were at during it’s making. Talking about the inner conflict which often causes artists to be worried about validation she gave a more candid pointer about the their feelings, confessing “I remember St. Vincent saying something about when you get older you realise that you’ve been trying so long to not write the songs that are actually just your favourite songs.”
It’s certainly all a matter of perspective. But at the start of the process the worry wasn’t how Blue Weekend would turn out, but that there was no shape to it all; After years touring the band’s famously visceral live show in the wake of the Mercury award-winning Visions Of A Life, the realisation set in that they’d written nothing of any substance whilst on the road.
Gradually however what began as only fragments have been transformed into an album that’s deservedly confident, smart and tune heavy. That they can punch hard we knew, a quality revisited here on Smile and the scuzzy punk of Play The Greatest Hits. However the album’s emotional pan is one of it’s many strengths, from disarmingly simple – No Hard Feelings and the Taylor Swift-esque Safe From Heartbreak (if you never fall in love) through the woozy dream pop of Delicious Things to the imperious, Annie Clark playfulness of Feeling Myself. As a whole or in segments, it’s both intimate yet endlessly playable, moving them up to the same main stage headlining space as Foals, Royal Blood or even label mates The 1975.
Some of the songs on Blue Weekend are going to be a lot of people’s favourite songs, for a long time.
You can read the full review here.
The Voice Of Unreason 
6 Comments
Comments are closed.