Crossfade Reviews: Wolf Alice "Blue Weekend"

 by Karl W.

Wolf Alice "Blue Weekend"
[Dirty Hit]
Rock/Alternative Rock/Shoegaze

    London-based rock band Wolf Alice had broken into the scene in the mid 2010s with the type of rock and grunge music that calls back to mid to late 90s alternative and hard rock music in the vein of Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Garbage, and Hole. I never really got a chance to listen to this band until I listened to that breakthrough debut, "My Love is Cool" in 2019...and was blown away upon first listen. It was a tour-de-force of a debut with a run of solid songs that mixed between heavy shoegaze to mosh-pit-ready heavy rock backed by fuzzed out production and a powerhouse of a vocalist in Ellie Rowsell. However, a step back from the sheen and the prestige of it all, I can see where the criticism of this band can come through. Their mixture of 90s based grunge and alternative rock can be seen by many as rather derivative. Sure, they have a lot of power in their hooks and could blend sounds and styles well, but how would this make you stand out from the contemporaries that do similar sounds nowadays, or especially towards those influences in the 90s? While I do understand the complaints, I also feel that Wolf Alice had managed to stand out regardless, even if I'm not as wild on that debut as I once was. Though, with "Blue Weekend" being their first album in four years, how does this stand out?

    Honestly, this might be Wolf Alice's most varied, complex, and massive album to date. The band is able to mix the sounds  of their first two albums with a new sense of sheen and veneer that could truly strike home for plenty of new listeners, and especially Wolf Alice fans. The band has always been able to blend the lofty, shoegaze adjacent style on songs like "Delicious Things", with their harder edge punk rock on songs like "Play the Greatest Hits". However, this is all matched with some of the band's best production yet thanks to Markus Dravs, who adds that grand swell that makes songs like "Delicious Things" and "How Can I Make It Ok?" soar to great heights. The different styles the band goes through are definitely impressive, and the grungy, dirty "Smile" leads into the lofty ballad "Safe from Heartbreak (If You Never Fall In Love)". Admittedly, not all the experiments work. "Smile" is a sludgy mess with a rap cadence that doesn't work terribly well, and "Feeling Myself" is a Vogue-style song that is largely forgettable. Despite it all, the big moments of this album still shine, as "Blue Weekend" is easily their biggest and most expansive album yet. However, the strong moments do help this stand out, especially as Ellie Rowsell sells sentiments of amazement on "Delicious Things" or bitter anger at those who feel self important on "The Last Man on Earth". The lush instrumentation also works wonders on these songs as well. The band might not still be too far away from their influences, unfortunately, but the album has a certain type of veneer and lush production that still makes it stand out on its own from Wolf Alice's other releases, making it worth listening to, especially by fans of Wolf Alice.

Best Songs: "Delicious Things", "Safe from Heartbreak (If You Never Fall In Love)", "How Can I Make It Ok?", "The Last Man on Earth", "No Hard Feelings"
Worst Songs: "Smile", "Feeling Myself"
7/10 (Good)