The Last Man On Earth – An eerily beautiful offering from Wolf Alice

After a four-year long hiatus and a multitude of tantalising teasers dotted around social media, Wolf Alice are finally making their highly anticipated return to the world of indie music with their latest offering ‘The Last Man On Earth’. Following on from their previous album, ‘Visions Of A Life’, will be no easy feat; but if anyone can do it, I would place my life in the hands of the dazzling Ellie Rowsell. Emailing their fans, the band offered up a quick peak into what the last almost-half-a-decade has entailed:

“It’s been a while, 4 years in fact. We quite literally could’ve had 4 babies each in that time but instead we’ve grown out two mullets, gathered a few wrinkles, downloaded TikTok, deleted it and then downloaded it again and now finally we’ve made you some new music. We think it’s our best stuff yet.”

The eerie monochrome visuals, directed by Jordan Hemingway, are the perfect accompaniment. Ellie’s striking, angelic vocals cut through the smoke screen of mystery to introduce a new era of Wolf Alice.

Nothing short of straight out of a indie-teen movie, the flickering screens, kaleidoscopic imagery, and fire-torn backdrop almost signal the end of Wolf Alice as we know them – in fact, we’re worlds away. This new venture is as much a short cinematic feat, as it is a powerful ballad.

Inspired by Kurt Vonnegut’s novel ‘Cat’s cradle’, Ellie carefully plucked the lyrics from a fictitious tale, and added deeper meaning to the words “Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God”.

Emotive lyrics and soaring vocals build up to make an escapist’s dream. The delicately layered piano and strings bring a heavenly, divine feel to the track; the orchestral bliss is emphasised by the lyrics “light shining down”.

Pegged by Ellie as the “Musical form of her own existential crisis,” and serving as a majestic dive into the mind of the powerful front woman, the glistening self-confession proves her prowess and demonstrates her evolution as a delightful songwriter.

Talking on the new album with Annie Mac on BBC Radio One: after a post-tour burnout, the band spent a few months apart and re-kindled their love for music in an Air BnB in Somerset, where they began writing their new tracks. Ellie explained that the album title was inspired by a taxi ride of perfectly blue skies. This new, grander, grandeur version of Wolf Alice are the most sonically mature the band has ever been, and I can’t wait for more newness.

It was well worth the wait.

The third Wolf Alice album ‘Blue Weekend’ will be released on June 11^th.

Preorder:

Wolf Alice – Blue Weekend – LP – Rough Trade

Wolf Alice – New album, Blue Weekend – out 11th June – Official website

(and if you can’t decide which colour vinyl to get, do what I did – get them all.)

Tracklist:

1. ‘The Beach’
2. ‘Delicious Things’
3. ‘Lipstick On The Glass’
4. ‘Smile’
5. ‘Safe From Heartbreak (if you never fall in love)’
6. ‘How Can I Make It OK?’
7. ‘Play The Greatest Hits’
8. ‘Feeling Myself’
9. ‘The Last Man On Earth’
10. ‘No Hard Feelings’
11. ‘The Beach II’