- 2025-08-26
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MUSIC
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Wolf Alice Releases New Album “The Clearing”
London-based alt-rock band Wolf Alice, consisting of Ellie Rowsell (vocals/guitar), Joff Oddie (guitar), Theo Ellis (bass) and Joel Amey (drums), released their fourth studio album “The Clearing” on August 22, 2025 via RCA and Columbia Records.
It is their first album in four years since the 2021 album “Blue Weekend”.
The album comprises 11 tracks, produced by Greg Kurstin.
The band wrote songs in Seven Sisters, London and recorded the album with American producer Greg Kurstin in Los Angeles.
At its core, “The Clearing” is a record about arrival, not at a destination but at a sense of peace with the journey.
The band lead singer Ellie Rowsel said of the album title, “I think it just like the image that those words conjure is something quite like I guess peaceful but reflective. I guess like any kind of image of nature is like, at once comforting and quite frightening maybe was the word. It's just being like a little bit polarizing and not bing in a too of a deep and dark way. Just being like is quite polarizing sometimes. I thin themes of nature and stuff, and imagery of nature popped up a bit, and it was nice.”- Ellie Rowsell told Apple Music about the album, “Maybe there are people who are scared of rock music that is soft. 'Soft rock' has felt like something I should never say out loud up until now. I don't care. This time, we weren't afraid to give references. Maybe in the past I felt that I didn't want to give them because then it would sound like that. But now I felt much braver to say, this is my reference. I knew that it was going to sound like us because I understood what we were a bit more.”
Bassist Theo Elli said, “We were thinking about what we were doing in a much more calculated way. I don't know whether it's age or whether it's having done this for the fourth time, but less was more with this record.”
Guitarist Joff Oddie said of working with Greg Kurstin, “We did this in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. We worked with Greg Kurstin who is a big famous pop producer, and probably one of the nicest men in the world. And it was a ball. I think it's probably one of the most incredible recording experiences we've ever had. Greg is like, such a generous guy. He is like, the most amazing musician I've ever seen.” -
The band explained some tracks for the album.
“Bloom Baby Bloom”
Ellie Rowsell: “I wanted a rock song to focus on the performance element of a rock song and sing like Axl Rose, but to be singing a song about being a woman. I've used the guitar as a shield in the past, playing it has perhaps been some way to reject the 'girl singer in band' trope, but I wanted to focus on my voice as a rock instrument so it's been freeing to put the guitar down and reach a point where I don't feel like I need to prove that I'm a musician.”
“Just Two Girls”
Ellie Rowsell: “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.”
“White Horses”
Joel Amey: “I was inspired by what songs we had already that were becoming The Clearing; the sonic shapes we were creating, the big acoustics, the harmonies, but I wanted to underpin it with a driving krautrock beat. We've never really known where we came in terms of heritage until recently. My mum and my aunt were adopted, and for years it posed questions of identity and where our roots lay for all of us, but for me, they never seemed like answers I needed to find out. I was on this big adventure with my best mates, never feeling the need to call one place home, living out a suitcase, all the stuff that comes with being in a band. I felt that the answers to 'who I am and where do I come from?' didn't matter so much; I'd chosen my family and they were the people around me. White Horses was me trying to put all that into a tune, and Ellie, Joff and Theo helped me all along the way.”
“The Sofa”
Ellie Rowsell: “It's about not trying so hard to figure everything out, reflecting on getting older and trying not to agonize over things that have or haven't happened in your life. It's also about trying to get to grips with the polarizing aspects of one's life when you're in a band. You've just played a huge tour - and you come home, and you have your dinner on the sofa. For me, it's summed up in how I treat TV. I used to never watch the same thing twice because I thought I've got so much to discover! And now I'm like, It's okay if I just want to rewatch Peep Show for the thirteenth time.” - source : Apple Music
