Wolf Alice‘s rise to veritable indie-rock stardom came as a surprise to no one who had been aware of them throughout 2015 and 2016. Releasing their first EP in 2013, the two-year build up to debut album My Love Is Cool was rife with non-stop shows and a litany of tantalising singles, and they barely missed a beat after the aforementioned album dropping, heading straight back out on a behemoth string of shows and continuing to make themselves known to anyone who was possessed of eardrums and didn’t live under a rock.
After the briefest of pauses for breath, the north Londoners have returned tonight, with details of a second album, entitled Visions Of A Life, the announcement of a November tour to look forward to, and perhaps most excitingly for now, a shiny new single to get our teeth stuck into. If it doesn’t get its teeth stuck into us first, that is…
Yuk Foo, whose title didn’t conceal its identity as a rather thinly veiled expletive for very long, made its maiden voyage on Annie Mac’s Radio 1 slot, and makes it easy to see why Wolf Alice’s brand of incendiary rock has had us so completely hooked for so long.
A low, crowbar-swing-to-the-teeth bass riff sets the stage, before Ellie Rowsell’s vocals roar emphatically onto the scene, the battle cry of a thousand raging teenagers. Frequent cries of “I don’t give a shit” precede a chorus of “You bore me / You bore me to death” while trilling guitars and a healthy dollop of feedback give the whole thing the manic, hair-raised tinge the quartet have refined so neatly over the years.
Yuk Foo is a taught, powerful reminder of what Wolf Alice can do at their gnashing, gnawing, frantic best, and we can’t wait to see what else lies ahead.
Visions Of A Life releases 29 September. You can watch the video for Yuk Foo above, and for full details on the announcement, head to our news piece.
Words by Ben Kitto
