Wolf Alice

Top 3 album in the UK. i don't think anyone saw that coming. they sound like Madder Rose to my ears. nice though. is this the bigest indie band of the last few years not to have their own thread?

anyway this one's my fave

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E-RQgDJcrY

There was talk about starting a dedicated thread in the Rolling 2015 Favorites thread, but it never happened I guess.

I've already made the point a dozen times that I thought the 7" version of "Bros" was one of my favorite indie rock guitar heavy songs of the last few years, and now I'm mad at the band not for re-recording it (it's their song, they can do whatever they want with it even though the new version sucks), but for removing all traces of the superior earlier version from steaming platforms and digital retailers. Eff you, Wolf Alice!

I still haven't listened to the album. Outside of the original "Bros" and "Moaning Lisa Smile," I think they're a band that's pretty long on sounding good but pretty short on writing good songs.

Listening now to the album: hmm, okay, some of these songs are really nice. "Freazy" in particular.

drummer is fantastic though

Lately whenever I encounter someone particularly annoying I hear "you're a dodgy fucker as well!" kick around my brain

this record is great

this record is fantastic, highlight of the year for me

Yep.

Better than I expected, better than I hoped.

Bits of this sounded really lumpen and uninspired in the way you expect from basically 100% of hyped Brit rock bands these days but then a song would just suddenly explode into a joyous pop moment. Jury's out but if they could put together an entire album as good as those best bits they'd be incredible.

if they could put together an entire album as good as those best bits they'd be incredible.

Exactly how I feel, although we might have different ideas about the best bits.

I'm not surprised this charted so high (in the UK). I had been looking forward to this, but I am mostly disappointed. Too much of the material drags excessively (including "Your Loves Whore"). My favorites remain "Giant Peach" and "Moaning Lisa Smile." Maybe "Fluffy." "Turn to Dust" is nice, but I'm on the fence about it. "You're a Germ" is fine, though it seems a bit demo-ish. "Bros" is pretty good, but the earlier version was better, even if I can't remember exactly what it sounded like. I need to listen to this some more, but that's the thing: I'm finding it a bit of a slog.

There are some good, possibly superior, live/studio live versions of some of these songs on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_MTHwAp-_Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IorLPeOuEuI

"Freazy" was the one that stood out for me.

lol if anything "giant peach" and "moaning lisa smile" drag the most imo

Hate Giant Peach, love Moaning Lisa Smile. ¯\(ツ)/¯

You're all wrong.

"your loves whore" is actually probably my favorite song on here, other than the last minute of "swallowtail"

Listening to it now, and the thing that strikes me is how it feels like it's barely there, until it shifts gears. around 3:30. A lot of this is down to Roswell's vocal delivery.

I guess the vocals are meant to sound intimately conversational?

that giant peach song rules

Peachy is riffs galore, and I like how it gets all Sonic Youth at around 3:05 (singles version, not the one I linked to above). I also can't help hearing echoes of the Psychedelic Furs' "India" at around 1:15, but that's probably just a personal problem. I hear as much of the 80s in it as the 90s.

I would have preferred if they hadn't made Roswell's vocals on that song sound like the Go-Go's or whatever they are going for there, not that I hate that sound, but her natural vocal sound suits the song better.

I'm listening to the album and it's pretty funny how this is almost structured to divide ILX, but honestly I think it's better for having the pop side and the more trad US underground rock style

I don't think of myself as very rock oriented at all, but I like Wolf Alice better in rocking mode. (Almost everything else I've liked this year has been dance pop, indie pop, hipster pop shit, etc.)

You could have a point in general though. If more of ILX pays any attention to this band, that might become clearer.

So wait there are THREE versions of "Bros?"

Oh I guess one of these is a remix of some sort. Not sure where this came from but I have it in my iTunes for some reason. Anyone know where this is from? It's pretty nice...

The album cover reminds me of one of those old occult/mediumistic photos.

hadn't twigged the similarity btw this and Moaning Lisa's Smile.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93jsY-YdZ1s

this was better than I expected it to be; it's a weird record to be so big. No real poppy hooks; also it's not really a standout for the sort of music it is either, but it's pleasant

I listened to this a few days ago after seeing how popular they had become and skimming this thread and I didn't expect it to sound the way it did. It reminds me a lot of Belly at their most introspective.

This is really growing on me.

Fuck I wish I'd listened to this before I submitted my eoy ballot.

#BRITBREAKWOLFALICE

http://www.brits.co.uk/british-breakthrough-vote-guide

i dig this song!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6vEE3Plk48

i seriously might go buy this album. i love riff rockin' with cool women singers. it must be the veruca salt fan in me.

best video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkghyKKQDss

love this too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KhC2qNLGd4

this is a great record scott! I hope you like it

Some of the live versions of "Giant Peach" are better than the album version, over all. This one for instance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6-wbuON8Qk

(Although the climax is maybe best in the studio version.)

*overall*

(I am really tired.)

i ordered the CD online. i got the U.S. version which is slightly different than the U.K. version? Just like in the old days.

This is my favorite rock album in awhile.

i had no idea. until the other day.

Really pissed off that I missed out on them last year. They're touring America now, but the only tour stop local to me is at a festival that I can't afford tickets to.

They're opening for the 1975 who are apparently playing arenas. How the hell is that happening? Same thing with Alt J, who sold out Madison Square Garden.

they have a sizeable and enthusiastic fanbase

i mean i too was surprised but they were selling out everything beneath arenas

i even love their cover of wicked game.

sounds so cool. they make it the guitar anthem it was meant to be.

The band have shared a new website (password: BLOOM) and a very chill spotify playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1vDcWjAX34jGx7VAmNgPzP?si=QZfBUxM7T1qZ1fRZlYKPIQ

New video premiers on YouTube in about 12 minutes.

you can dance to this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBGcloF8LIY

I'm so happy they're back.

A great racket but i'm not sure it's got much of a song underneath. Also the big label, big producer thing is giving me the fear a bit, but after Blue Weekend as long as there are one or two good songs on there i'm happy.
Very glad they're back though yes, truly.

the New Wolf Alice track sounds remarkably like Norwegian pop band Highasakite

same big sound production techniques, same rhythmic drum flow

Highasakite - Golden Ticket

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2NopIx3sTg

released May 2016

this is just fine but that's what i thought about the lead single from the last one which turned out to be the best album ever

I love this band but bloom baby bloom sounded kinda mid at first listening

c'mon it sounds landfill indie

They're playing arenas on the next tour.

Awesome for them! My jaw dropped at your post. Sadly, after going to check, realized that's only on one side of the Atlantic. I might try to see them at the 9:30 Club, though.

I think this band is pretty inconsistent on record, like, some of the songs are just utterly amazing and phenomenal and then some of them are just crap. this is alright but I could see them tilt toward their crap side and become huge.

Second (!) London arena gig announced. I guess a combination of the Harry Styles tour, a fantastic last album and a major label has helped to push them out of the mid-level uh level.

https://d3ry4o1su9a59w.cloudfront.net/public/5afa8d3ed9e8404b190001d7/61bb04304026c2002171a1e1/682dcc081504e8000bef6ea1/1/432-0001.jpg

Don't Delete The Kisses is constantly in the Youtube recommendations of everyone I know as well, regardless of what else they're listening to or watching.

My only gripe with that is I wish Delicious Things was the default 'absolute classis masterpiece' that was being shoved under people's noses.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0X5BFCwcB8

this is great, chamber-pop-y, reminds me of the last arctic monkeys album

!!

My daughter has a band called "Watching Alice"

I did wonder if that was a wise name for her band, they're not a million miles away, style wise, but they're doing alright

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXOgzXmd5Zo

the other video isn't working so here's "the sofa" again, it's just like the best stuff on the last album so i love it

great song, i love songs about doing nothing (like sitting on the dock of the bay)

video makes me want to be back in england

new track dropped today, White Horses - a more guitar oriented track.

starts of as a Wire type of track with Joel, then Ellie doing the Kate Pierson B52s vibes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKVOPB7e5N8

krauty and pastoral, i like it

album seems like it's going to be wonderful

is this the first time any of the others have briefly taken on lead vocals?

Joel sang Swallowtail on the debut

Loving this one : otm about the krauty vibe… and Kate Pierson’s !

really beautiful album

new album's great, maybe not as good as blue weekend but still very strong

This band should be in my wheelhouse but I only know a few songs. Going to have to check this record out.

Just popping in here because I really love the new album. I was worried I wouldn't; the rollout of singles kept catching me off-guard. At first I was excited because the sunflower emojis playlist they shared on Spotify was full of mellow 60s/70s moods. But then Bloom Baby Bloom came along and was not like any of that, or anything I had heard from Wolf Alice before either! Then they dropped The Sofa, which I didn't like at all, and really killed the mood for me. I totally missed the White Horses drop because I was depressed and miserable that week and couldn't even bring myself to listen to it.

Overall, the album is, in fact, very groovy like the sunflower playlist. I think it's perfectly suited for late summer/early fall. I'm still not big on The Sofa, or opening ballad Thorns. White Horses is unusual, but has great moments - I'm still getting used to that one.

Everything else kicks my ass, hard! My favorites have changed with each listen, but this time around:

Just Two Girls: Ellie's commitment to writing songs about female friendship rules.
Passenger Seat: Can't pin down the antecedents right off the bat. Feels like an 80s/90s adult alternative cod-country thing? Is that fair? Anyway, they nail it.
Midnight Song: I LOVE After the Zero Hour from VOAL, and this song dips back into the same well - all I could ask for!

Some people are missing the grungy vibes of their earlier work. I know that's what initially drew me to them. But I think they do a great job expanding the definition of Wolf Alice while still somehow sounding like Wolf Alice.

i’ve recently discovered that white horses is the best song ever made

Awesome! I'm definitely down with Ellie's B-52s prechorus contributions, and the chorus is pretty good. I'm trying to find my way in to the verses. They didn't land immediately for me and I just haven't quite gotten ahold of them yet.

Swallowtail was one of the songs it took me the longest to get on their debut, and I love that one now, so I'm sure I'll come around to it. Joel just throws curveballs, I guess.

this album sucks so much
"White Horses" is redeemable (maybe even great)
but Wolf Alice were until recently my favourite contemporary indie-rock band :(

???? my goodness

i think they expanded beyond their original boundaries quite capably. i don't like this as much as blue weekend but blue weekend has that whole nighttime narcotic half-asleep kissing a stranger mood. the songcraft here is just relentlessly lovely and bright. "just two girls" is SO gorgeous

the really hostile reactions from former fans kinda baffle me. i guess i do love a curveball

this album is just a clear move towards a certain set of influences/vibe that i just find utterly dull, and the results seem uncompelling

i liked them as a spiky unpredictable post-punk band; i find them so inexpert in this Last Shadow Puppets kinda mode

did you hate blue weekend too?

I think this album is really dull. It might grow on me but for now I'm counting it as a disappointment; huge downturn from Blue Weekend

Is anyone else hearing Last Dinner Party in this new album?

I really love « white horses » and like « the sofa » but I have to say the rest of the album doesn’t really grab me after a few plays.

Mine arrived yesterday. It's stuffed with flowers and bracken...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LlvZRCS6OE

as with all songs about female friendship, i listen to it and think "that's so gay...."

It's about 'er from Confidence Man supposedly.

Ellie Rowsell and Janet Planet at Glastonbury 2025 pic.twitter.com/8uiSCQYP5k

— gherkin rowsell (@gherkinrowsell) July 2, 2025

….. that’s so gay…..

also listening to this album this morning and thinking about how rich and varied the arrangements are and how sharp the songwriting is!!! and also that this shift toward the baroque was really thoroughly telegraphed by “the last man on earth”

“play it out” wrestles with a number of things i’ve been facing lately. really glad i have it in my life now

this album is great, f the haters

there's been a cd of this sitting on a cart at my station for a few days, i think it fell out of a package :(

Number One