{"id":292898,"date":"2025-10-10T21:07:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T21:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/292898\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T21:07:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T21:07:15","slug":"why-wolf-alices-l-a-recorded-album-the-clearing-could-mark-its-american-breakthrough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/292898\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Wolf Alice’s L.A.-recorded album ‘The Clearing’ could mark its American breakthrough"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After 15 years, four records and a buzz-making barrage of shows, tours and festivals, the moody, multifaceted music of north London\u2019s Wolf Alice<\/a> is huge in the U.K., thanks to uniquely seductive soundscapes, visceral live shows and a relentless hunger for experimentation that melds rock, shoegaze and alternative pop.<\/p>\n

With their latest studio album, \u201cThe Clearing,\u201d the members are primed for the next level of success in the U.S., and it comes via songs that reflect their growth as individuals and as a collective.<\/p>\n

Consisting of lead singer Ellie Rowsell, guitarist Joff Oddie, bassist Theo Ellis and drummer Joel Amey, Wolf Alice provides both feminine and masculine perspectives on life that feel resonant and real, with sonic approaches that can go from raging one moment to restrained the next. They\u2019ve honed their sound even as they\u2019ve continued to experiment with it. The result is exciting for them and for fans, now more than ever.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis tour has been incredible. It\u2019s definitely been the busiest and had the biggest shows we\u2019ve ever played in America,\u201d Ellis tells The Times via Zoom, noting that the band\u2019s upcoming Wiltern date in Los Angeles on Oct. 13<\/a> is almost sold out.<\/p>\n

Wolf Alice\u2019s connection to Los Angeles is especially significant at this phase of its career. \u201cThe Clearing\u201d was recorded here with famed producer Greg Kurstin (Adele, Miley Cyrus), who brought his pop sensibilities to the project, even as he encouraged the band to follow its own eclectic instincts, dipping into synthy, dancy elements and balladry with bite.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a different producer every album, so every experience has been quite different,\u201d says drummer Amey, who joins our Zoom later. \u201cHe was just a very calm and positive force in the studio that made all of us feel very comfortable, to be able to be the best versions of ourselves \u2026 And it did come at a time where maybe even the four of us were second-guessing ourselves. We\u2019d been in this headspace for a while about how we wanted to treat the sonics of the record. You can get stuck in that cycle \u2026 But he was so positive that he could help us get there, and he did.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Taylor Swift\u2019s latest record<\/a> brings scrutiny to the construction and thematics of pop music and its presentation, Wolf Alice\u2019s seductive sway and wistful grit feels comparatively effortless, even if it\u2019s just as accessible.<\/p>\n

Buzz in the U.S. started after a killer set at Coachella 2016, but we caught Wolf Alice the following year at Dave Grohl\u2019s Cal Jam in 2017. Its emotive alt-rock melodies and charisma more than held its own next to headliners including fellow-Brit Liam Gallagher and the Foo Fighters themselves (who the band has also toured with). The material, largely off its first and second albums, \u201cMy Love Is Cool\u201d and \u201cVisions of a Life,\u201d respectively, offered a compelling blend of sharp riffage and dreamy textures, which reminded us of everyone from Smashing Pumpkins to Cocteau Twins at the time. Standout tracks we noted included the dissonant \u201cYuk Foo\u201d and the sassy hit \u201cDon\u2019t Delete the Kisses.\u201d<\/p>\n

After another shimmering genre-blending release, 2021\u2019s \u201cBlue Weekend,\u201d and now \u201cThe Clearing,\u201d it\u2019s almost a decade later, and the band is even harder to codify. The members are also bonafide touring and festival vets.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the U.K., festival culture is, like, a whole thing. The U.S. is kind of getting more like that too,\u201d Amey says. \u201cBut European and U.K. festival culture is a rite of passage for a teenager \u2026 it\u2019s ingrained. If you\u2019re starting a band, you\u2019re thinking about festivals at some point. So we love playing them. We played Glastonbury this year, and it just felt like a really wonderful way to say, \u2018We\u2019re back, here\u2019s some new stuff,\u2019 and also a celebration of the old stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Old or new, creative imagery has been a consistent component of Wolf Alice\u2019s expression. Building upon the cinematic qualities of its music, its videos elevate not only its narratives but also its rock-star personas as well.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

\u201cThis album explores themes of performance which I think is prevalent in the music videos and musically, in rock \u2019n\u2019 roll which we also explore,\u201d frontwoman Rowsell shares by email. \u201cIn the past Wolf Alice have shied away from performance videos so this marks a new vibe for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBloom Baby Bloom,\u201d which features an \u201cAll That Jazz\u201d-style dance sequence (with choreography by L.A.\u2019s Ryan Heffington, known for his magical movements on the Netflix cult fave \u201cThe OA\u201d and in Sia\u2019s \u201cChandelier\u201d) brings out the drama and audacious expression of the song, especially Rowsell\u2019s soaring vocals. It also highlights the band\u2019s maturation and liberation as established artists at the height of their performing powers.<\/p>\n

Similarly, \u201cJust Two Girls,\u201d a sweet ode to female friendship that\u2019s a cool, \u201970s soft-rock filler track on record, becomes more of a defiant anthem for feminine freedom on video.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a wonderful license of expression in which you can kind of do whatever you want,\u201d reflects Ellis on the videos. \u201cIt\u2019s absurdist in its nature and there are really interesting formats to explore. We\u2019ve had some great experiences in America making them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The band has also had memorable moments on Amercian late-night TV, including \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d and \u201cThe Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,\u201d turning in wild appearances that reflect its name (inspired by a book about feral children raised by wolves).<\/p>\n

And while good old-fashioned live performance has helped its popularity grow, the band acknowledges that the music industry is different \u2014 even from when it started 15 years ago, with streaming\u2019s domination and platforms like TikTok exposing music to new audiences. For a band driven by its own interpersonal chemistry, interactions and influences, it\u2019s not top of mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not concerned with how it\u2019s going to be distributed to people fundamentally, as we\u2019re creatively trying to satisfy ourselves,\u201d Ellis says. \u201cI don\u2019t think the mechanics of [music discovery] are affecting what we\u2019re making in the studio or the creative process. There\u2019s so much for a band to create nowadays, and to worry about \u2026 from our perspective, the music is what comes first and then everything else is hopefully just kind of a fun way of presenting it to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After 15 years, four records and a buzz-making barrage of shows, tours and festivals, the moody, multifaceted music…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":292899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[26949,1582,276,77881,76098,149978,4084,149979,149977,2961,224,2444,5337,4006,34961,983,19514,989,107058,1628],"class_list":{"0":"post-292898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-band","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-clearing","12":"tag-ellis","13":"tag-expression","14":"tag-festival","15":"tag-festival-culture","16":"tag-l-a-recorded-album","17":"tag-la","18":"tag-los-angeles","19":"tag-los-angeles-times","20":"tag-losangeles","21":"tag-pop-music","22":"tag-record","23":"tag-rock","24":"tag-song","25":"tag-video","26":"tag-wolf-alice","27":"tag-year"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115351915774596825","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}