Wolf Alice - The Clearing (August 22, 2025) Album • Page 5

man i love White Horses

 

Very cool song

 

this song screams fall afternoon

 

Yeah this song is excellent

 

holding off for the album at this point

 

stunning song, I love the harmonies in the chorus

 

To quote the band themselves, "I won't say no, I'll give it a go."

 

I interviewed Joff and Joel!!! Can’t wait for you all to hear this stunning album tomorrow

Wolf Alice: How The Spirit Of Reinvention And The Ghosts Of Their Past Powered ‘The Clearing’

and the cover images:

 

Lovely first listen. Quieter than I expected, but in a good way.

 

Bread Butter Tea Sugar is insanely good. Like c’mon. (White Horses is another “how are they this good” moment)

 

Very positive first listen of this. Pretty wild how this very much feels like a Wolf Alice record despite how different it is sonically from anything they’ve done before, at least on a full-album scale. Could have gone for one more loud-ish song like Bloom Baby Bloom but that’s a minor complaint. This is going to get a lot of play this fall.

Random thoughts:
- “Just Two Girls” is so much fun. How was this not a single?? Gonna predict that this becomes a fan favorite live.
- I don’t know how else to describe it, but the chorus of “Leaning Against the Wall” makes my brain happy lol. It’s almost ASMR-like when that synth comes in out of nowhere. And then the drums in the outro! So good.
-“Bread Butter Tea Sugar” is the most British song I have heard in my life (complimentary)
- “White Horses” still rules so hard, what a cool song

 

This is quite good!

 

bread butter tea sugar is so fun, I adore the outro

leaning against the wall is one of their most beautiful songs already, and I love just two girls

I always wanted another song like after the zero hour and they certainly didn’t disappoint with midnight song - just gorgeous

white horses into the sofa are great songs to close, and yeah, thorns into bloom baby bloom is a hell of a way to open

I’m proud of them for just doing what they wanted on this album and sticking the landing

 

Ellie and the band sound great, much less into the streamlined high school notebook bent of the lyrics, which feels specific to this album. I can only assume it was a conscious choice.

 

Only listened once last night but I am having a hard time forming my opinion on this one

 

I’m never usually on board when bands “quiet it down” on an album. Loved their debut and Blue Weekend. Their 2nd one didn’t stick with me aside from a couple of tracks. Still excited to give this a spin today.

 

Just Two Girls got me goin pooh-mode

 

Hmmm, haven’t listened to the whole thing yet but so far I’m really not liking this direction

 

Some thoughts.

Kind of feels like they were trying to make a classic rock album here. Pretty mixed results. I hate to say it but I miss the distorted guitars. This just feels...lifeless. Aside from Bloom there is very little variation from track to track, which is unfortunate because it's the best track on the album.

Maybe it will grow on me but I'm not really feeling this direction.

 

Took me a few listens to get comfortable with the change in style but yeah I like this

 

This is the most autumn ass album I've ever heard. Agree with the above. Bloom is great and it has some bite. Nothing else stands out. Although I was a bit distracted while listening. It all was....fine. White Horses is standing out a bit I guess since I did listen once before. Luckily Ellie's voice is incredible. Hoping I want to throw this on again at some point soon.

I have a ticket to see them in Sept. Makes me.... kinda not want to put in the effort to go now. Oof.

 

Not surprised that this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, I love their distorted riffs too and hope they aren’t gone forever, but I do pretty strongly disagree with the “it all sounds the same” comments. Just Two Girls (almost disco-y?), Bread Butter Tea Sugar (Beatles influence), Leaning Against the Wall (the chorus synths!), Midnight Song (witchy/folk) and White Horses (Fleetwood Mac-like) are all sonically very different to me, just off the top of my head. Not saying this of anyone here specifically, but I think some people online may say “it all sounds the same” to mean “it’s a lot of acoustic guitar,” but the actual songs themselves are doing a lot of things.

 

Yeah I kinda want to see turnstile instead even though I bought wolf Alice tickets for the same night

 

i get that this album is going to be divisive but I didn't expect "i no longer want to see them live" divisive sheesh

 

Not sure about this yet but it’s certainly nice and pleasant overall