Albums: The Clearing

Released on 22 August, "The Clearing" is the 4th., studio album by Wolf Alice, the band wrote the songs for the album in Seven Sisters, London, while recording took place in Los Angeles with American producer Greg Kurstin. 

 

The album marks their departure from Dirty Hit, the label under which they released their first three albums, and is set to be released through RCA and Columbia. The Clearing  has been described as "a classic pop/rock album", drawing influence from the 1970s while remaining "rooted firmly in the present.". The announcement compared the project to "something close to if Fleetwood Mac wrote an album today in North London". 

 

The album represents that moment of clarity and peace, and leaving your youthful turmoil behind, it’s a record that moves it forward in an assured, accomplished way that can only be achieved with time and experience, and this band has it for sure.

 

The album opens with "Thorns" a piano-driven lead and this time frontwoman Ellie Rowsell turns the lens solely on herself. “Did it help to take the thorn out / Telling the whole world you’d been hurt,” she sings scornfully of airing her dirty laundry in her music. "Bloom Baby Bloom," the lead single off The Clearing, it tooks a certain listen to get hooked on it, not bad after all cause is one of the album's standout for real. 

 

A constant throughout Wolf Alice's career has been the ability to write so incisively about life and love of all kinds, and here, the band sharply recreating the positive affirmations of female friendship on the warm Cali-pop of "Just Two Girls" and grappling with the biological clock and society's expectations of women ageing on "Play It Out".

 

"Leaning Against The Wall" then delivers another world-beating love song it's a gently evocative enough that it’ll make you want to fall head over heels for someone. Now drummer Joel Amey leads "White Horses" – his first song on lead vocals since "My Love Is Cool''s "Swallowtail". It's a heartfelt reflection on heritage, family and identity that rolls on a foundation of psych and folk, Rowsell taking over vocals from Amey’s verses to declare: “Know who I am, that’s important to me.”

 

Other interesting tracks are "Bread Butter Tea Sugar"  that has a slight Thin Lizzy/Randy Newman style and the closer, "The Sofa."  it has reverbed vocal wails to the stop-start interplay of the instrumentation to the way it explodes with infatuation on that final chorus this track/single is a very underwhelming album closer, particularly in how it just kinda stops, I just don’t feel that the songwriting does anything unique to stand out from both the classics its inspired by and other retro-minded acts.

 

The album has its pro and cons, it's a huge separation from their other albums, the songwriting is strong, and album for the post-30 people, it has sweetness and depth, with certain 70's and 80's influences but never felt outdated,  obviously requires a few listenings althought sometimes the record moves toward monotony. 

 

The Clearing Track List:

 

1. Thorns

2. Bloom Baby Bloom

3. Just Two Girls

4. Leaning Against The Wall

5. Passenger Seat

6. Play It Out

7. Bread Butter Tea Sugar

8. Safe In The World

9. Midnight Song

10. The Sofa