Rock savants Wolf Alice have returned to the fore, four years after the release of their acclaimed Blue Weekend LP. The group has been on a steady incline since the release of their debut My Love is Cool in 2015. Their sophomore record Visions of a Life reached No.2 on their homeland’s charts, and the aforementioned Blue Weekend went further still to give the band their first UK No.1 album. Now with the announcement of their next album The Clearing, heralded by lead single “Bloom Baby Bloom,” Wolf Alice is once again poised to conquer the rock scene, both at home and abroad. “Bloom Baby Bloom” itself is a powerful opening statement; arresting and spirited, full throated yet tender all at once. It feels like a natural evolution of the band’s described “rocky pop,” doubling down on both their classic influences and contemporary indie rock sensibilities.
“Bloom Baby Bloom” is built on a cyclical piano riff and a booming percussive loop, syncopated but recurring with clocklike consistency. Singer Ellie Roswell’s sonorous lead vocal weaves in promptly – reserved at first, and soon afterward boisterous and robust. Layered harmonies are then added to the tapestry, along with more and more percussive elements (courtesy of drummer Joel Amey), building to a fever pitch only to plunge suddenly into relative quiet. That momentarily delayed tension is released soon after with a quick shift back up into higher volumes (and, for Roswell, a higher register) and a modulation in the original piano riff, now played in unison with guitarist Joff Oddie and bassist Theo Ellis, bolstered by a briefly snare-heavy evolution of the main beat. A new, more spacious iteration of the verse’s steady pulse returns for the chorus, awash with Roswell’s rich vibrato. Then the whole cycle of steady build from clockwork riff and onward resets, each time adding novel touches ranging from new harmonies to Frippertronics-style guitar textures, until finally “Bloom Baby Bloom” closes almost where it began on that same opening piano riff.
With “Bloom Baby Bloom,” Wolf Alice have kicked off the build to The Clearing with a thunderous opening salvo. Sounding something like “Moaning Lisa Smile” by way of Siouxsie and the Banshees, “Bloom Baby Bloom” delivers ferocity and reflection in equal measure. Wolf Alice seem to have set their sights on total victory over the rock world, and if “Bloom Baby Bloom” is the standard to go by, The Clearing could well be a clean sweep.