What does it sound like?:
Just before the end-of-year polls cap it all why don’t we try and rescue a few notable releases from the ‘mentioned in dispatches’ pile. So, kicking up a little bit of a storm, here’s the second album from Zeitgeist-botherers Wolf Alice for your consideration.
The WA sound does not exactly emerge like a strange fish from some uncharted musical ocean. I lost track of bands that came to mind in listening to this album but here’s a go: Curve, Throwing Muses, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Kitchens of Distinction, This Mortal Coil, even a touch of Spacemen 3 and revivalists like Ballet School (second album from them would be very welcome).
First track Heavenward (a completely nineties title) sets out the stall with soaring vocals, chiming guitars and a straight-ahead driving (Driving That Fast indeed) 4/4 rhythm. Yuk Foo adds a bit more crunch to the guitars, more yelp to the vocals. By Beautifully Unconventional we have a bit more attitude and lyrical content, it’s a track that will ‘speak’ to anyone at Sixth Form College. Don’t Delete the Kisses – most keyboardy so far. Fifth track Planet Hunter (which returns to the goth-lite sound world of the opener) consistutes the last of a trio of tracks that are the lyrical core of vocalist Ellie Roswell’s world: one in which she is inviting someone out, sending text messages about things which were only ever going to go wrong, asking someone to delete them, while being aware that is completely cliched behaviour.
The second half of the album can’t quite sustain the momentum of the first, but finds time to revisit the Cocteaus 90s sound in St Purple and St Green and check the box marked ‘skippable acoustic ballad’ before the epic title track closer (putting your title track last, and making it twice as long as anything else on the album is a statement). Unfortunately it’s a sludgy trashy mess that ditches all the nimble footwork of the rest of the album to Rock Out. Don’t let this dissuade you from the very good work that’s gone on before.
What does it all *mean*?
WA are nobody over twenty-five’s idea of an original band. But just like The Libertines invented a folkier Clash for the naughties, they are making a pretty good stab at the relevant rock band for their generation. If I was 18 they would be speaking to me. Clearly they don’t, but their songwriting is sturdy enough and their rifling through rock’s back pages varied enough, to offer up musical enjoyment for a much wider age-range.
Goes well with…
Looking at your mobile. Having to get the last bus. Going for a job interview.
Release Date:
Might suit people who like…
4AD
moseleymoles says
They ‘star’ in some semi-fictional on the road documentary by Michael Winterbottom called, er, On The Road.
The Good Doctor says
I heard one track of these which I really liked, and pressed all the 4AD buttons but I believe they’re really ‘eclectic’ and it’s atypical of their work which veers off in all sorts of directions? -That puts me off somehow – but maybe that reflects the younger generation who just sit there in front of YouTube or Apple Music and just punch a few buttons to summon up any music they want from the past 70 years and then switch when they get bored.
At least they’re listening to Cocteau Twins or KoD rather than the Stone Roses and Morrissey
johnw says
I quite like this album. It’s not going to be at the top of anyone’s end of year poll lists but who wants to listen to the same 5 new albums all year long? It’s certainly a bit K-Tel in it’s focus but who says a band has to sound the same all the way through. I like it better than their debut but will probably rarely, if ever, play it once it gets tipped off the edge of my MP3 player.
Don’t let a vague resemblance to the Cocteau Twins on a couple of songs put anyone off though!