Best album and band of the year.

I’ll give Circa Waves a close second, because they are awesome and so much fun, and his ability to sing whilst crowd surfing is amazing, but Wolf Alice I’ve long anticipated and I LOVE THEM SO SO MUCH.

When I started writing this post I thought I’d first read about Wolf Alice on Line of Best Fit, but I’ve checked my export from Teuxdeux, where I first started keeping an artist todo/wishlist, and the date I made a note to be sure to check them out was in May 2013, which ties up perfectly with The Guardian’s New Band of the Day. I hadn’t heard them at all, they just sounded intriguing because of the reference to the Throwing Muses; Kristin Hersh and Tanya Donelly - fantastic vocals that fuelled my youth.

For whatever reason it never occurred to me to look on Soundcloud for tracks and Wolf Alice have been on there since Oct 2012 so I could have and it’s not like I hadn’t used Soundcloud before then; not much, but I had definitely used it back in 2010 for Rex the Dog. Perhaps it was because I didn’t really have access to a good enough computer at the time, or I simply forgot when I did?

So, it wasn’t until the end of 2014 when I first got to hear them, unexpectedly, on Xfm one evening. If I recall correctly, I was so excited I hushed the wife and kids so I could listen to it properly. I think this track was Giant Peach and I thought it was amazing shouty girl punk, everything I could have ever hoped for.

This prompted me to finally go and listen to other tracks. I was amazed how different the next thing I heard was, Leaving You - which is easily one of my favourite tracks.

Album tracks

Anyway, onto what I think of the album.

  1. Turn to dust - Intro, not much to say about this.
  2. ♡ Bros - Just utterly beautiful (the video is fantastic as well).
  3. ♡ Your Loves Whore - A complete soundscape.
  4. ♡ You’re A Germ - Slowish, gentle start and then kicks off into some shouty goodness.
  5. Lisbon - I probably keep overlooking (over-listening?) this one. Perhaps my least favourite at the moment; might grow on me; it already has.
  6. Silk - Reminds me of Don’t be Afraid of the Dark so a little scary.
  7. ♡ Freazy - More poppy? Easy dreamy listening. I love her vocals. I don’t know, I’ve never known a band with so many different sounds, that still sounds like the same band, but all sound awesome. I think this may become one of my favourite tracks; Definitely; Superb.
  8. ♡ Giant peach - Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!
  9. Swallowtail - The end of it reminds me of Catherine Wheel or Curve. Funnily enough nothing reminds me of the Throwing Muses. Perhaps Babes in Toyland instead.
  10. Soapy Water - A bit like Lisbon in that it doesn’t yet stand out to me. I might pay more attention to it later.
  11. ♡ Fluffy - It is an end of album track (even though technically it’s not), but in a good way. A bit like slamming the door shut on your way out.
  12. Wonderwhy - A more gentle ending.

Others not on the album:

I’ve already mentioned this first one, there are actually quite a few other tracks not on the album to check out. These are just a few:

  • Leaving you - Just beautiful. One of my favourites.
  • Storms - I like this too.
  • Blush - Blush, blush!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Right, I’ll be listening to My Love Is Cool for the rest of the year and drinking turbo shandies (I wish).