‘Blue Weekend’ Wolf Alice Album Review
An eagerly-awaited effort by critics and fans alike, ‘Blue Weekend’ is the third album from London quartet Wolf Alice and one that needs to live up to the lofty expectations being heaped on the indie favourites. Having announced their entrance with 2010’s ‘My Love Is Cool’ debut, the band started to come into their own with the 2017 follow-up ‘Visions Of A Life’. An album that saw the band win a prestigious Mercury Music award, all eyes were now on how the London quartet would follow up this award-winning effort for their crucial third album.
Upon winning their award, the band joked they were “too pop for rock, too rock for pop” and, again, ‘Blue Weekend’ sits right in that niche with a foot in both. However, fronted by the stunning Ellie Roswell, there is something truly unique about Wolf Alice which means that as the like attitude and fuzz-drenched “Play The Greatest Hits” may stick out amongst some of ‘Blue Weekend’s gentler, more acoustic-driven moments like opener “The Beach” but they certainly don’t feel out of place. You see, whether you’re listening to the venue-shaking stomp of the aforementioned “Play The Greatest Hits”, or the less frantic “Feeling Myself” which follows it, nothing feels like it is just stuck in there. Showcasing the depth of their sound, the former sees the band letting rip with all guns blazing with almost five minutes of catchy pop hooks and fuzzy guitars while the latter is a delicious slice of epic pop.
Elsewhere “The Last Man On Earth” sees Roswell and the band exploring gentler more sincere waters where, quite honestly, imagining the vocalist performing this to a captivated audience where you could hear a pin drop sends a shiver down your spine. “Delicious Things” sees Roswell exploring life in Los Angeles while “The Beach II” wraps ‘Blue Weekend’ up effortlessly in an emotion-soaked three and a half minutes. With 2017’s “Visions Of A Life” quite rightfully winning the kind of plaudits it did, Wolf Alice were going to have to go some to top it. By the time they’ve wrapped up the wonderfully dramatic ‘Blue Weekend’, it’s hard to deny that, for all the praise heaped on its award-winning predecessor, this is the album where the London indie/pop favourites really became the band the world has been waiting for.
January 2022 Tour Dates
7th – Glasgow, Barrowland Ballroom
9th – Newcastle, City Hall
10th – Norwich, UEA
12th – Manchester, O2 Apollo
14th – Sheffield, O2 Academy
15th – Liverpool, O2 Academy
18th – London, Eventim Apollo
22nd – Southampton, O2 Guildhall
23rd – Bexhill-on-Sea, De La Warr Pavilion
25th – Dublin, Olympia
27th – Birmingham, O2 Academy
28th – Plymouth, Pavilions
30th – Bristol, O2 Academy
