Wolf Alice new album The Clearing, out now

Today, seminal British band Wolf Alice release their eagerly anticipated fourth studio album The Clearing, alongside focus track ‘Just Two Girls’, via Sony Music.

Speaking on the new track, Rowsell adds: “I was inspired by going for dinner with my friends — a couple of friends, at different times, just one-on-one. I noticed how much I was saying Oh my god yeah you’re so right! And I thought it was so nice to see how validating these conversations with my girlfriends are, how much I’m learning in these chats. I think I’ve been trying to figure out a lot of things, like getting older. I feel it’s really been a strange time of thinking about appearance. And these are things you hash out with your girlfriends and suddenly you don’t feel so shit about them again. I just felt like there deserved to be a song about that.”

Following a potent trio of singles ‘Bloom Baby Bloom’, ‘The Sofa’ and most recent ‘White Horses’ – each unveiling a distinct sonic direction – The Clearing arrives as a moment of crystallisation for one of the UK’s most inventive and emotionally charged bands. Written in Seven Sisters and recorded in LA with Grammy-winning producer Greg Kurstin, The Clearing is a widescreen collection of songs that are bold in ambition, full of heart, and the band’s most refined work yet. It’s a classic pop/rock album that nods to the ‘70s while remaining rooted firmly in the present. If Fleetwood Mac wrote an album today in North London, you’d get somewhere close to this run of effortlessly grand tracks, each as distinct as the last.

The band celebrated last night with a history-defining release show at The Dublin Castle in Camden, hallowed ground for a band whose impact in their native North London is impossible to measure. The celebration extended next door with a special pop-up event, where fans got an early listen to the album and access to exclusive merch.

At its core, The Clearing is a record about arrival – not at a destination, but at a sense of peace with the journey. Whether that’s the self-interrogation of ‘Thorns’, the yearning nostalgia of ‘Leaning Against The Wall’, or the raw intimacy of ‘Play It Out’, each track maps a waypoint in the band’s evolution. A landmark album in both concept and execution, The Clearing is less a reinvention than a recognition of the band’s full capabilities: fierce yet fragile, playful yet profound. Front and centre is Rowsell’s ever-evolving poetic storytelling alongside an innate desire for Ellie, Joff, Theo and Joel to have fun, secure in their ambition and ability at this unique moment in time.

From the rolling euphoria of ‘Bread Butter Tea Sugar’, to the assuring acceptance of ‘The Sofa’, the record captures a band unafraid to push themselves further than ever before. This is Wolf Alice fully in command – no longer searching, but stepping confidently into a new chapter.

The album’s title serves as both a quiet mission statement and emotional centerpiece. It finds the four piece meditating on what remains when the uncertainty, insecurities and self-deprecation of your 20s falls away. The sentiment – “Know who I am, that’s important to me. Do what I can to see the wood from the trees” (White Horses) – is less a declaration of triumph than of peaceful acceptance. The Clearing is Wolf Alice’s most accomplished and affecting work to date.

Wolf Alice have come a long way since the North London quartet first emerged in 2013 as a young band holding a mirror up to their own emerging generation. Today, Wolf Alice’s fourth album The Clearing finds them at the peak of their powers, grown into a band of generational importance. While the bruised euphoria of their debut My Love Is Cool, which featured the Grammy-nominated ‘Moaning Lisa Smile’, both captured and perfectly soundtracked the experience of youth first cutting their musical teeth, 2018’s follow up Visions Of A Life cemented their rise with a Mercury Music Prize, before the precious hurt of 2022’s Blue Weekend and its resultant UK number 1 and Brit Award for Best Group. In the process, lead singer Ellie Rowsell has grown into a storytelling icon, weaving cautionary tales of how your twenties will hurt you, but in valuable ways. Wolf Alice have also toured the world multiple times headlining sold out tours, gracing numerous festival stages and supporting an array of key artists including pop icon Harry Styles. Following a packed summer of historical festival slots at Primavera Sound, Radio 1’s Big Weekend and Glastonbury, the band will celebrate The Clearing with a sold-out tour across North America, Europe, the UK and Ireland this autumn, that sees the band headlining some of the biggest stages of their career to date including London’s O2 Arena.

The Clearing – Tracklist

1. Thorns
2. Bloom Baby Bloom
3. Just Two Girls
4. Leaning Against The Wall
5. Passenger Seat
6. Play It Out
7. Bread Butter Tea Sugar
8. Safe in the World
9. Midnight Song
10. White Horses
11. The Sofa