Blue Weekend (2021) – Wolf Alice

Dirty Hit, 2021

Wolf Alice’s third record is a masterful piece of rock that delivers in a variety of styles. Blue Weekend covers booming alt-rock, mesmerizing shoegaze, fierce punk, mellow indie pop, and sensational dream pop. It’s a record that delivers hit after hit on heartbreak, fame, and friendship.

The opener, “The Beach”, builds very slowly, but rewards the listener with a rocking final verse that ultimately leads smoothly into the next track “Delicious Things”. “The Beach” is very effective at easing you into the record with its rising instrumentation and vocals. This track about a failing friendship full of subtle conflict aptly begins with the opening lines of Macbeth—”When will we three meet again?/In thunder, lightning, in rain”. The opening lines also pave the way for the thunderous end to the track that is preceded by the light rain that kicks things off.

The next track on the record, “Delicious Things”, is the first dip into shoegaze on the record. My favourite track on the record, it’s very magical in the way it depicts the trappings of being a public figure in Los Angeles. There’s a contrast of anxiety in the verses and embrace of the LA life in the chorus. There’s a slight Lana Del Rey vibe to the song in the sound and theme. The chorus on “Delicious Things” is simply glorious with those flowing synths, zipping guitars and layered vocals.

Continuing with banger choruses, “Lipstick on the Glass” delivers. A steady theme throughout the record is subtle verses followed by heavy driving choruses. “Lipstick on the Glass” starts with a simple electric guitar pattern and lead singer Ellie Rowsell’s vocals, but then flips to an expansive chorus filled with synths, guitars, bass, drums, and layered vocals—the works. The melodic contrast between the verses and chorus are very fitting for the premise of the song—taking back a lover after they cheated. The verses explore the allure of the cheating lover, and the chorus syncs with the moment of giving in.

The theme of heartbreak continues on “Safe from Heartbreak (if you never fall in love)”. Instead of dangerously giving in to someone after they break your heart, this track delves into the avenue of simply avoiding love completely. This angelic track has great harmonizing vocals on top of a clean acoustic guitar fingerpicking melody. It’s a sweet one that is a breath of fresh air in the middle of a loud and energetic record.

Two other tracks that continue to explore different ways of dealing with heartbreak come in the second half of the record. “How Can I Make It OK?” is about trying to repair a relationship, while “Feeling Myself” sees the embrace of singleness, and also has lyrical allusions to… masturbation?

Not only do Wolf Alice look at heartbreak from different angles, but they also convey these ideas in different musical stylings. “How Can I Make It OK?” is an airy and light dream pop track with a chorus that embellishes the pleading lyrics in the chorus. As Rowsell cries “I just want you to be happy”, her reverby vocals are surrounded by soft retro synths to create a very pleasant chorus.

“Feeling Myself” switches things up with its synthy alt-rock sound. Again, the chorus is huge and the verses are timid. The allusion to masturbation is given a very metaphorically fitting climactic hook. Just read between the lines and listen to the song. You’ll definitely get what I mean.

The drastic turns on the punk and punkish tracks are major detours stylistically, but are actually pretty good. Though they do stick out like sore throbbing thumbs, they do what they set out to achieve. “Play the Greatest Hits” is meant to be drowning as the bridge depicts. The song is a bit meta as Rowsell sings about drowning out emotions with loud music, and the song itself is so loud that it can do exactly that. There are flavours of J-rock here, especially in the whiny vocal delivery. “Smile” is less punk than “Play the Greatest Hits”, and is more of a sonic middle ground between the latter and the rest of the record. It’s a fun track that switches things up slightly from the synth-heavy and “wall of guitar” sound of the first three tracks on the record.

The closing trio of tracks wraps things up nicely in style and theme. “The Last Man On Earth” is Rowsell’s spotlight moment. The track begins with just straight piano chords and Rowsell’s vocals. This is yet another track that comes in two parts. The first half is soft, delicate, and timid. The second half is melancholic, but by no means dreary. The interlude after the bridge is an interesting moment with flanged guitars and synths. Structurally, “The Last Man On Earth” is a final showcase of the inter-contrast present on most of the record. Contextually, the commentary on humanity’s selfishness is an interesting, but welcome change in premise on a record mostly about love.

“No Hard Feelings” can be summed up as an electric version of “Safe From Heartbreak (if you never fall in love)”. Like the latter, the former is quite bare with just fingerpicked electric guitar and Rowsell’s soft, almost whispered, vocals. This track about long awaited closure from heartbreak ties up the theme of heartbreak sweetly. It’s nice to have a positive outlook on heartbreak to close out the theme.

The closer, “The Beach II”, takes us back to the opener in many ways. Beyond the title of the track literally being the second iteration of the opener, we see the return of the theme of friendship, lyrics about nature, and thunderous guitars. Unlike the conflicting friendship from the first beach, this second beach is much happier. It’s “Girls on the beach/My girls on the beach”. This beach is much warmer and the drinks being sipped are cold. It’s hard to describe it, but it simply sounds like a closing track? Maybe it’s the slower pace of the track, or the fading instrumentation. Possibly it’s the lyrics about the setting sun on the horizon. Whatever it is, “The Beach II” sonically fits at the end of the record.

Blue Weekend is both perfectly titled and oppositely titled at the same time. The weekend following heartbreak is always the worst. When everyone finally gets off work for the week and enjoys their weekend, you’re left sad and awful. While everyone else has a great weekend, you have a Blue Weekend. Conversely, the end of the record—the weekend of it if you may—is much happier than the rest of the record. Lyrically, sonically, or in both ways, the last four tracks are much more positive than the earlier tracks. If the last four tracks were the weekend of the record, it’d be a sunny and bright weekend.

Wolf Alice has made an epic, yet extremely sincere and vulnerable record. The instrumentation and production are on point, the vocals are glistening, and the songwriting captures the themes perfectly. The album sequencing on this record is very smart as the styles ebb and flow, so that tracks don’t clash or cluster together. Blue Weekend will surely make many year end lists for 2021, including mine.

Favourite tracks: The Beach, Delicious Things, Lipstick on the Glass, How Can I Make It OK?, Feeling Myself, The Last Man On Earth, No Hard Feelings, The Beach II