Wolf Alice – The Clearing
Thorns; Bloom Baby Bloom; Just Two Girls; Leaning Against the Wall: Passenger Seat: Play It Out; Bread Butter Tea Sugar; Safe in the World; Midnight Song; White Horses; The Sofa
(RCA)

Winners of the Mercury Music Prize, British rock band Wolf Alice return with their fourth album, The Clearing. In the four years since the release of Blue Weekend, many changes have taken place; the band has a new record label, and an established music producer – Greg Kurstin (Adele, Paul McCartney, Liam Gallagher) – has been brought in to give the album a cinematic and expansive feel while never dismissing a commercial angle that will gain the band a larger audience.

Members of the band have reached a turning point – they are now older and on the other side of thirty, resulting in a more mature and thoughtful approach to the proceedings. The album is certainly ambitious, yet it has not lost the focus that made the band such an appealing prospect.

The template here is a varied one, from the opening track of Thorns, which comes with a debt to The Beatles, through to the glam rock of Bread Butter Tea Sugar and the folk-like Leaning Against the Wall. The passing of time is best exemplified on Play It Out, where lead singer Ellie Rowsell looks to the future on a piano-led song that sounds honest and true with a lyric where she says that she wants to “age with excitement”, a plea which will surely be attained given the path the band have decided to take as they raise the bar yet again.

The group has already moved up to playing arena-sized venues on their upcoming autumn tour. Some of the songs contained here would maybe work better in a more intimate setting; others, such as Bloom Baby Bloom, will be ideally matched in a vast space, sounding triumphant, resounding and in control – just as Wolf Alice come across on this album, which makes a big impression, giving another reason to believe that British rock music is still alive and kicking.