There’s a heartbeat to Wolf Alice’s music that has always rattled through the bones. It’s felt from the first whispered lyric to the final erupting scream. Delicate one moment and devastating the next, their songs don’t play, they pulse, raw noise and rawer emotions swirling in a constant, breaking motion. To listen is to be swept into something alive, wild, and deeply elemental – simultaneously comforting and unsettling, intimate yet immense. Their comeback single ‘Bloom Baby Bloom’ is all these things, with an order of showmanship and sass on the side.
From their electrifying debut ‘My Love Is Cool’, Wolf Alice set themselves apart immediately. The record was a declaration of intent. These were torchbearers for those hungry for guitar music with feral, emotional depth. Tracks like ‘Giant Peach’ captured an explosive intensity, while ‘Bros’ offered shimmering nostalgia – the stage firmly set for a band that could navigate the extremes.
Their trajectory continued boldly through the dream-soaked defiance and fuck-you-brilliance of ‘Visions of a Life.’ It was a fearless sophomore album, fierce and uncompromising, blending punk rebellion with ethereal, shoegaze romance. Wolf Alice proved themselves a band unafraid to shape-shift, navigating from the feral scream of ‘Yuk Foo’ to the delicate, ghostly pull of ‘Don’t Delete The Kisses’ – a statement of its own that stands amongst the very best of any genre, any era.
Yet it was 2021’s ‘Blue Weekend’ that etched their legacy permanently into stone. A totemic masterpiece forged amidst a world on fire, this wasn’t escapism through illusion; it was defiance in the face of chaos. A soaring sanctuary built from raw honesty and heightened emotion, surrounded by uncertainty, Wolf Alice delivered. A record that resonated with universal acclaim, it garnered a BRIT Award for Best Band and near-universal adoration. ‘Blue Weekend’ was a full-fledged coronation, a triumphant entry into their imperial phase as Britain’s finest.
Now, almost exactly a decade since ‘My Love Is Cool’, Wolf Alice are still evolving fiercely and instinctively. With ‘Bloom Baby Bloom,’ they funnel their textured noise and emotional rawness into dynamic new forms, once again pushing their story forward without losing even a spark of the initial fire that defined them. From that first mocking, exasperated line, that infernal engine ignites at full throttle, propelled by a primal, pounding heartbeat. A thumping rhythm intertwines with a rolling piano line, while a chorus built to soar bursts into a breakdown of cathartic release. Ellie Rowsell prowls through the track, equal parts showmaster and sorcerer, effortlessly commanding attention — hunting prey, casting spells, owning every moment.
‘Bloom Baby Bloom’ is music with dirt under its nails and starlight burning bright in its eyes. It’s further proof that Wolf Alice remain gloriously, defiantly exceptional in rebellion to the algorithm’s iron rule – a band whose significance cuts marrow-deep, in full bloom, and blooming still.
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