Wolf Alice - Blue Weekend (2021) 48-24
Country: UK
Genre: Alternative Rock, Indie Rock
Format: FLAC (*tracks)
Quality: Lossless [48 kHz/24 bit]
Time: 40:06
Full Size: 490.43 MB
Perhaps the most exciting rock band in the UK right now, Wolf Alice prove they're ready for the summer festival season with their third album-the follow-up to the London four-piece's Mercury Prize-winning Visions of a Life. Right off, they let you know with "The Beach" and its slow build that swells and crashes like, well, storm waves on the beach. This isn't surf rock-more a show of the unpredictable and overwhelming elements-but it's as evocative as they come, positively waning at the end. A similar trick is used on "Delicious Things," a gentle shuffle that breaks wide open into a glorious expanse and heavenly chorus. Singer Ellie Rowsell sings the verses with a sneaky little melody (hints of early Lily Allen here) and slightly hushed delivery, like she's gleefully speaking into the phone with her hand covering her mouth-both to hide her smile and keep a secret. "I'm in the Hollywood Hills . if you're up popping pills you know I won't say no," she sings, her delightful British pronunciation of "Los Angeleees" making the place sound like Mecca. Elsewhere, she takes no shit: "Don't call me mad/ There's a difference, I'm angry/ And your choice to call me cute has offended me," she spits against a bottom-heavy groove. Call it a resistance to how, still, today, female musicians are being pigeonholed. "Play the Greatest Hits" finds her using a bratty playground chant to keep up with the rumbling bass, speeding guitar and drums-the whole irresistible thing sounding like the wheels could come off at any second. (If this song were a car, flames would be shooting out the tailpipe.) There are other enchanting surprises. The catchy, hypnotic "Safe from Heartbreak" is almost ABBA-like, while "No Hard Feelings" plays a gentle, campfire melody. "Feeling Myself" starts off comedown-slow, then turns majestic, and Rowsell draws out the verses of "How Can I Make It OK?" like honey dripping from one syllable to the next, before switching to a crisp staccato for the chorus. And power ballad "The Last Man on Earth" is a stunner. Rowsell has said the lyrics are about "the arrogance of humans," and her words cut like a hot knife: "And every book you take and you dust from the shelf / Has lines between lines between lines / That you read about yourself ... You were the first person here and the last man on earth / But does a light shine on you?" © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz
