They were the chart-topping, Corbyn-supporting band taking potshots at the Tories – so why do they sound so jaded about politics? As they gear up for album four, the alt-rockers explain their journey to self-discovery
Paper tablecloths, blazing sun, spitting grill, plastic chairs, dishes of tzatziki, an expectant cat sidling up to diners: we could be in Greece. “It’s like a holiday,” marvels guitarist Joff Oddie, sipping an enormous iced coffee. But Wolf Alice are not on a Mediterranean jaunt – they’re at a restaurant on an industrial estate in Seven Sisters, north London, a few doors down from the studios where they wrote their upcoming fourth album The Clearing and its chart-topping predecessor, Blue Weekend. “We used to call this street Anchovy Mile,” reminisces front woman Ellie Rowsell. “Because it smelled like fish.” That might be the tip round the corner or, thinks bassist Theo Ellis, a nearby brewery (“something to do with filtering through fish scales”). Either way, such an odour would only cement the seafront ambience of “Costa del Tottenham”, as Ellis names it.
The only thing that could disrupt the serenity of this scorching Wednesday lunchtime is a spin of Wolf Alice’s new single. Bloom Baby Bloom is a genre-bending rock bonanza: squealing guitars, bone-shaking bass, ostentatious drum fills, but also honky tonk piano and a dreamy pop chorus. Throughout Rowsell veers between breathy folk croon and a hair metal wail. To underline the retro vibe – and the vocal gymnastics – the video has Rowsell writhing in a sparkly, glam cut-out leotard amid a Fame-style dance troupe; in the promo images she is clad in cherry-red hot pants and matching knee-high boots.
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