Album Review: Wolf Alice's My Love Is Cool
Jack Page | 5th July 2015
Photo credit: Twitter
Wolf Alice have created the ‘debut album of the decade’ according to NME. Do we agree? Yes, yes we do. The fender thrashing quartet have taken what we see as modern indie rock and beaten it senseless. Thank God, someone needed to.
I first stumbled across the band at Reading festival last year before seeing Hozier’s set at the festival republic stage. I only managed to hear the last couple tracks of the set, I asked the girl next to me who they were, Wolf Alice , she said. Now I’m hooked.
The first track, ‘Turn to Dust’, sucks us in with the simple beat strung along with a folky guitar plucking in the background with lead vocalist Ellie doubling up with some vocal harmonies. We’re welcomed easy into the record, all is calm, and all is well. Then we’re onto ‘Bros’ and things are starting to pick up a bit now with the stringy synth sounds of the modern techno keyboard. This track is one you can tell is going to played by the band for years to come, a love story between two friends reverberates through the track. The track has gone through a transformation since the first recording last year and seems to have had a bit of TLC from producer Mike Crossey and the band as its much cleaner and neater than the first few cuts.
The record doesn’t allow you to sit still past the second track, especially with the intricate drumbeat of ‘Your Love’s Whore’. A strangely romantic track, with Ellie’s vocals echoing through the chorus, ‘I let your love tease me, now I’m your love’s whore’. Onto the fourth track, hurray. ‘You’re a Germ’, the most recent track to be released as a single, sneaks onto you with some intriguingly creepy lyrics setting you up to be smashed by the chorus. After the ‘ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX, SEVEN’ you’re picked up by the screams of ‘You ain’t going to heaven, don’t think you’re going to hell’. Dark and fun, ‘You’re a Germ’ is our favourite track on the record, THERE, WE SAID IT.
After the ordeal of ‘You’re a Germ’ we’re on to ‘Lisbon’, a calm and easy listen compared to some of the tracks on the record, nice. Now with the sixth track, ‘Silk’, I’m hearing a bit of Lana Del Rey eeriness, I know I’m not the only one? They’ve found a good balance of darkness lightness throughout the album. ‘Freazy’, the 7th track on the record, is another smooth track and has a nice 90s ring to it, another wicked track.
Woah mama, the next track, ‘Giant Peach’. Here’s my stadium filler for the album. Starting off with the soon to be iconic palm muted riff it brings you closer and closer to a great first verse. It’s been said by many but you have to note the similarity in Ellie’s voice to that of Pixies. The grungy sound to this track towards the end really makes you wanna smash up something up with your forehead, oh, just me? Okay. Our second best track on the album, just missing out on top spot, JUST.
You then get to relax with the acoustic sounds of ‘Swallowtail’ sung by drummer Joel Amey and backed up by Ellie towards the end. A nice feel of calmness in a stormy wave of electric indie rock. Slowly moving onto ‘soapy water’, a track with a lot going on. A techno beat and the reintroduction of the synth sounds seen in earlier tracks like ‘Bros’ and Turn To Dust’. We’re then rudely awakened with the intro for third track ‘Fluffy’, a crowd favourite. You then get the sense of what this band is about, the exciting, intense lyrical skills of lead Ellie along with the lead guitarist Joff ringing out the G string and a cool bass line joining up the dots in another immense track. They top off this excellent debut album with a cool breeze from the hidden track ‘The Wonderwhy’, don’t be fooled the same as I was with this track. Wait for the actual hidden track which is the title track!
All in all, if you haven’t listened to this album yet then what the devil are you waiting for!? If they can top this album with their next then they’re on to something huge! Well done Ellie, Joff, Theo and Joel. You nailed it.