Wolf Alice first turned heads over two years ago and
have since released a couple of singles and a couple of EP's whilst slowly
developing and readying their debut album. One of these singles, 'Bros' was my
song of the year back in 2013, so to say I've been looking forward to this
album for a while is something of an understatement. So here it is and has it
been worth the wait?
Their sound has developed and they have more variety
than maybe the early recordings suggest, but then there always was a folky,
indie, gothic vein (i.e., varied) to their sound, and this is ably illustrated
by opening track 'Turn To Dust', it’s melodic with a touch of All About Eve vs Pink Floyd
but very modern sounding, lyrically oblique, the sweetly cooed ‘Keep your beady eyes on me’ leads into a song of fear
and uncertainty. From this straight into a new version of 'Bros', a modern Brit
pop indie anthem already. You can't ruin a classic, however I firmly prefer the
original two year old single version by a country mile. The song is a seemingly
life affirming song about precious friendships, but there was always an
undercurrent to the words, ‘Oh jump at 43, are you wild like me?’, and this is now reflected
in the musical arrangement that comes with it. The original was simply cleaner,
more classic and more uplifting. It is still a great song though. 'Your Loves
Whore' is great sweet guitar based pop song about jumping in and finding lasting devotion. It's
followed by 'You're A Germ' a much grungier dirty rock song, possibly about a
leery old rocker leading a school age groupie up the wrong path? It has a great
shouty/sweary chorus and it's one of my favourite songs on here.
'Lisbon' mixes the melodic with a harder noisy
undercurrent and another dark lyric of fear and death. By now the decision to
take their time over the debut album (you only get one chance at your first
album the band offer) is clearly paying off. This is a collection of timeless
genre defying modern rock. 'Lisbon' runs effortlessly into 'Silk', an esoteric
floating mood piece that builds into a tight anthemic treat with a great vocal
arrangement and another tale of the good and the bad in relationships, no gain
without pain. 'Freazy' kicks off the second half off the album, perhaps the
most straightforward pop moment on here yet, a song driven by a simple drum
pattern with intertwining bass lines. Then comes ‘Giant Peach’, first heard earlier this year as the slow build up
to the album began. A more guitar driven track with a moody downbeat lyric, a
tale of struggling to leave the past behind and embrace the doubt an unknown
future. 'Swallowtail' is a track that stands apart from the album in a number
of ways. The lead vocal comes not from front person Ellie Rowsell but from
drummer Joel Amey. It sounds almost like a different band, but then that's part
of what the band try to be, undefinable, multi-faceted and many faced. And they
do it pretty successfully too.
As if to prove this 'Soapy Water' arrives with yet
another different sound, a gentle floating balletic pop sound again though it’s a song of fear, doubt and
hiding feelings. 'Fluffy' was the band’s first physical release in 2013 and also reappears
here. A more typically indie sounding guitar track it has focus and drive and
its return is most welcome; like ‘Giant Peach’ it’s another song about leaving childhood and the town
you grew up in behind. Last track proper 'The Wonderwhy' has echoes of Bjork’s Sugarcubes, a slow building
medium paced ‘what’s the meaning of life’ rock song with interwoven
vocal parts, and leads into one of those 'hidden track' moments, an under
produced demo sounding guitar and vocal fragment of a song possibly called 'My
Love Is Cool'. It's short and unfinished but finishes the album off as proper
full stop.
So then, Wolf Alice have achieved a memorable debut
album, shot through with quality and variety. It's not gonna hit Arctic
Monkeys/Oasis levels of debut album sales, a shame really as I feel it's just
as deserving, but the music business simply doesn't operate in that way
anymore. But this album is a success, I urge you to check out what's available
of the bands earlier releases (use Deezer, iTunes and YouTube) while you still
can. In fact move quickly and HMV are offering an exclusive edition with a
first CD release of last years 'Creature Comforts' EP. But mainly, check out
this fine, memorable debut album in whatever way you can. As the band say, you
only get one shot at your debut LP so don’t screw up. Well that’s mission accomplished then.
9/10
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