Blue Weekend is Wolf Alice’s best work yet – a confident, euphoric, blistering 40 minutes that’s guaranteed to be on many people’s ‘best of’ lists at the end of the year.
The third album by the four Londoners is a raw, rousing, grungy masterpiece. British rock has clearly never been in ruder health.
If you imagine their old songs as rally cars, the new ones are still driven as wildly, but with steelier focus and in-built roll cages.
‘Blue Weekend’ is a triumph. In the context of the world around it, though, it feels even more than that. It’s special.
‘Blue Weekend’ is masterful. Noticeably simpler in sound than was perhaps expected, some songs are stripped right back to the barest of bones. But that’s fine, because when you have moments of pure beauty like this, you don’t need fancy clothes to cover them.
On their third and best album, the London four-piece embrace a more polished, widescreen sound that serves their sharp writing on late-20s anxieties.
Competent, confident and captivating, Wolf Alice’s absorbing third LP showcases their penchant and passion for stretching their sound while further solidifying their distinctive musical identity. If there’s any justice in this world, Blue Weekend will be the album that finally convinces audiences outside of the UK—and specifically here, stateside—of their brilliance.
‘Blue Weekend’ is a ballsy idyll of feeling: the sound of a band satisfying themselves rather than proving themselves, and completely filling the space they’ve carved out over the years.
Across all of Blue Weekend, one thing is very clear – this is Wolf Alice’s best offering to date, and one of those albums that qualifies as an event. It’s emotionally stirring, sonically riveting, and just as unpredictable as always.
Truly establishing themselves as the bright possibilites of guitar music, and blurring lines along with setting new ones out, ultimately with Blue Weekend, Wolf Alice continue to be the very essence of what is to be a band while also remaining - more importantly - human.
Not just euphoric but also important music, and another near-faultless Wolf Alice wonder.
Blue Weekend takes what makes Wolf Alice great and sharpens it into a tighter, more focused piece that explores these relationships, evoking the immediacy of emotion and the wisdom of distance depending on the track.
Blue Weekend is a stunning return and one that should cement Wolf Alice’s reputation still further. As ever it’s an eclectic yet cohesive collection of songs that demonstrates maturity, and an unerring ability to craft beautiful, heartfelt genre-defying music full of warmth, depth, and emotional intelligence.
With a newfound simplicity, the dynamic shifts hang together around earnest vocals and mature songwriting to produce not only a sonic achievement but an emotionally intimate one.
Ellie Rowsell’s shapeshifting, storytelling flair combines with shoegaze, folk and indie pop on this alchemically good album.
The result of this isolation is an intense collection of memorable and powerful tracks that twist and turn. An intensity that’s present in both the explosive and mellow moments.
North Londoners get it together Traffic-style at lockdown Sommerset Airbnb.
Blue Weekend is a collection of songs that immediately dazzle, with a relentless array of strong hooks, nestled within a sea of diverse sonic colours.
Definitely not a reinvention, it plays to the band’s strengths while amplifying new qualities, a record as bruising as it is subtle. Working to their own passions and desires, ‘Blue Weekend’ places Wolf Alice beyond the reach of their peers.
These 11 songs are varied enough to make categorisation tricky, and they often mix it up within the same track.
The north London quartet’s third effort is a dynamic and diverse journey through love that further secures their status as one of the UK's best acts.
There isn’t a weak moment on Blue Weekend, it’s an excellent listen, and for Wolf Alice fans, it’ll be well worth the four-year wait. It will serve as an introduction sure to open a rabbit hole into the band’s previous output for those not yet converted.
Blue Weekend never feels overwrought despite its ambition and lengthy creative process -- instead, it's the kind of big, unabashedly emotional album that people make memories to, and some of Wolf Alice's most confident and fully realized music.
Rightfully so ‘Blue Weekend’ will crystallise Wolf Alice’s status as one of the most important bands of the last 10 years but it’s hard to overlook the album is missing an extra sprinkling of magic.
The formula remains largely the same – singer Ellie Rowsell’s subtly raspy vocals and confessional lyrics buttressed by the grungy indie pop they made their name with – although there are efforts made to deviate from this, with varying success.
Musically, Blue Weekend serves as a refreshing counterpoint to the U.K.'s recent post-punk renaissance led by acts such as Squid, The Murder Capital, and Dry Cleaning. But Roswell also shares themes of shame, confusion, and feeling lost in the song's blissful anthems.
Nearly every song on Blue Weekend comes across as an overblown pastiche of 90s alternative and indie rock.
by numbing down the rock, and often toning down the volume, somehow wolf alice emerge louder than ever. ‘blue weekend’ is fairly indescribable as it presents many genres and vibes. the result is a project which expands: an everlasting project which provides undeterred enjoyment. ‘blue weekend’ offers safety and shelter. it is full of calm, thoroughly majestic, and shining. shining from bareness.
wolf alice's ideas and emphasis are clearer for 'blue weekend' than ... read more
There’s a palpable sense of artistic growth and maturity on ‘Blue Weekend’, the feeling you get watching a band finally finding themselves after years of struggling with their own identity. Wolf Alice has, for me at the very least, always lacked something to truly maximize their potential. As great as the highs on ‘My Love Is Cool’ and ‘Visions Of A Life’ are, Wolf Alice seemed to lack a clear sense of their identity. Now, 4 years detached from their ... read more
YES YES YES YES YES!!!!!!!
ELLIE ROWSELL MY BELOVED
My favorite indie rock band is finally back with their third album, Blue Weekend.
If you’re following me for a while now, you might have noticed that I got a bit obsessed with this band lately. I listened to their first 2 albums well over a year ago, but my obsession really began just a couple of weeks before Blue Weekend was announced.
I don’t know how to explain this properly, but I will try. You know when you listen to a ... read more
Perfectly balanced album with a mix of fast paced guitar heavy songs among beautiful dreamy slow songs
fave tracks : The Beach, Lipstick on the Glass and The Last Man on Earth
first listened in 2022, and while i enjoyed the project it was never something i found myself itching to come back to as a full work. i see why. while blue weekend is much more toned down than WA's previous works, which i really liked. it gave the moments where it DID get noisy and rocky a little more umph. that said, some of the stand out moments on blue weekend come when the sound is stripped back, such as the fun, bubbling sound on the chorus of "smile" that comes through a sea of ... read more
Blue Weekend feels like one of those indie projects that are a really pleasant listen while they last, but later on, you'll never really feel like, damn, I could sure go for that Wolf Alice album right about now.
It's also one of those albums that sounds just like the album cover. It's darkly textured, but colourful, feels like a sad party for indieheads. The LP was seemingly tailored to maximize success, while remaining safe-ish. Most of these tracks are standard indie rock songs with a dream ... read more
1 | The Beach 2:35 | 84 |
2 | Delicious Things 5:04 | 89 |
3 | Lipstick on the Glass 4:07 | 87 |
4 | Smile 3:16 | 84 |
5 | Safe From Heartbreak (if you never fall in love) 2:32 | 79 |
6 | How Can I Make It OK? 4:47 | 87 |
7 | Play the Greatest Hits 2:27 | 80 |
8 | Feeling Myself 4:43 | 84 |
9 | The Last Man On Earth 4:21 | 89 |
10 | No Hard Feelings 2:35 | 82 |
11 | The Beach II 3:39 | 83 |
#1 | / | DIY |
#1 | / | Dork |
#2 | / | NBHAP |
#2 | / | Record Collector |
#2 | / | The Forty-Five |
#2 | / | The Guardian |
#2 | / | The Independent |
#2 | / | Under the Radar |
#3 | / | Albumism |
#3 | / | NME |