When reaching your thirties, acceptance kicks in. Accepting your own personality, your own heritage, your own style of writing, your own guilty pleasures, your own neighbourhood, your own aging, your own moments of idleness, that it’s ok to accept advice and that unfortunately your parents won’t be here forever. On Wolf Alice’s surprisingly mostly calming fourth album The Clearing, Elle Rowsell, Joel Amey, Joff Oddie and Theo Ellis unapologetically express the aforementioned acceptances through bold lyrics that point towards previous identity-cloaking habits (‘Bloom Baby Bloom‘), past conversations (‘Just Two Girls’), description of specific memories (‘Leaning Against The Wall’), not beating around the bush truths (‘Play It Out’) and familial and love confessions (‘Safe In This World’), as well as pairing this with warm 70s inspired (see the clothes won in the recent music videos and promo photography) soft and glam rock, that provides a peaceful moment of reflection. This in itself is another acceptance, as Ellie Rowsell has said in an interview: “Liking soft rock was embarrassing for so long. “I don’t care any more.” The Clearing is the concept of taking a pause and reflecting upon your outlook on life as one enters their third life decade. Like Adele, fans can follow Wolf Alice’s journey in age-related manner.
Due to change to a more mature sound and lack of many immediate favourites, The Clearing takes a few listens to truly appreciate. This being the 30s Wolf Alice, some patience and acceptance also from a fan perspective is required. There are no hurried songs on the North London quartet’s new Greg Kurstin-produced record, when that was the case with ‘Play The Greatest Hits’ on Covid-era Blue Weekend and ‘Yuk Foo‘ on Mercury Prize winning Visions Of A Life. The closest to a punk level drama is on the glam rock ‘Bloom Baby Bloom’ , however the song progresses in a theatrical breathtaking manner where the pace takes unexpected The Last Dinner Party-like turns. Long term followers already know how versatile Ellie’s voice can be (for newbies, listen to ‘You’re A Germ‘ as a prime past example) but on the new LP’s lead single it hits another level of expression. ‘Look at my trying to play it hard / I’m so sick and tired of trying to play it hard” is the 33-year old switching from her previous persona of blending in to the band and copying other British bands by having an aloof attitude in attempt to be cool, to now being centre stage – see The Clearing’s album cover – and unleashing her emotions freely. From falsetto to a yell to a “huh” to a kind of what could be described as an angry whisper. Rather than merely supporting the singer with a basic rhythm, as is the case with many rock songs, the rest of Wolf Alice are also on their A game as well to bring the dramaturgical journey to life.
The piano moves like feet, at once tiptoeing, and the drums follow the same turns as its pianistic counterpart. Due to the style of nostalgic soft rock that the rest of The Clearing follows, the piano is a common instrument being used this time, especially in the album’s ballad moments. It is used in simplistic but beautiful way on ‘Play It Out’ – a song where Ellie accepts her possible childless future in both an anatomical (the powerful line “when my body can no longer make a mother of me”) and owning it in a metaphorical way (“I will rule the world, rock the cradle with a babe-less hand”) but also reflects family by looking at the mortality of her parents (“When I scatter ashes in the river’s water, will I change my notion of family?”). The song with a retro organ that’s reminiscent of the theme to British children’s show of yesteryear The Magic Roundabout.
‘Bread Butter Tea Sugar’ is the most obvious link to the 70s era. The clappy piano and drum beat recalling T-Rex’s ‘Hot Love’, although modern keyboards are also thrown in there, so along with the lack of pop culture-referencing or technology-naming on the album, The Clearing becomes somewhat timeless. The lyrics on ‘Bread Butter Tea Sugar’ are about acceptance of one’s guilty romantic pleasures. In this case, Ellie is lusting for a guy who is bad for her. “Carve my name on the tombstone. The badman’s whore” is quite an audacious lyric, along with the line “I want to settle down, oh, to fall in love. But, sometimes, I just want to fuck” on ‘The Sofa’ However on the latter, it is part of a conveyor belt of acceptances on show. Ellie’s subconscious – which is referred to as a separate female entity – is reminding her that she has the free will to “be no one thing” and therefore she sometimes and without feeling shame can ‘lie here on the sofa’ all day (Oasis being another band to promote the benefit of the activity) and “can be a bitch when I am mad”. Along with the British term of “sofa” (American’s call it “couch”), England also gets positive points when the lead singer mentions her living location. Ellie sings: “Didn’t make it out to California / Feels a little like I’m stuck in Seven Sisters” before finding acceptance that she is meant to be in the place she can truly call home: “And maybe that’s okay.”
Even though Ellie is on the album cover by herself and she takes the lead in voicing her feelings of acceptance, ‘White Horses‘ is drummer Joel Amey becoming the main vocalist, he interestingly discusses his identity complex. On top of a layered krautrock guitar signature and a Fleetwood Mac air, Joel details initially how his concern for his heritage was born from an annoying question he kept being asked (“Just need an answer to the question in the taxi”), how he found out that his real grandmother – his mother was adopted – was from Saint Helena (“Wrote a scholar from the island that they kept from me”) and yet his indifference to this new found knowledge has fuelled a fight with his sister (“My sister paints apathy like blasphemy”). For Joel, those around him form his accepted identity. Ellie transforms into Alanis Morrisette to contribute to the chorus. Her inclusion creates the support network vibe that Wolf Alice has been known for and one of their reasons for the comfort blanket likability; with ‘White Horses‘ adding to the succour playlist alongside the likes of ‘How Can It Make It OK’ and ‘Bros’. With The Clearing, through their clear and evocative lyrics, Wolf Alice promotes that learning acceptance is the key to living one’s life to the fullest.
