The Clearing

After listening to The Clearing, the first thing I remembered was Ellie’s voice. Of course Wolf Alice always relied on her before, but back then the noise of the guitars, the drums that suddenly sped up and her low spoken lines always competed for attention together. This time she stands further forward. Many songs are built around the piano, and the outline of the melody is very clear. She has to hold up all those emptied spaces by herself, and she really does.

The opening of Thorns is a little tentative. The singing is close, and the accompaniment is in no hurry to fill everything. Only when the voice gradually opens up does the direction of the whole album show. This unfolding then leads into Bloom Baby Bloom. The piano is played with weight, the drums push the chorus very high, and she charges upward from a lower register, the high notes so bright they almost show off. It sounds exhilarating, and you can feel her enjoying her own voice.

I like that this song doesn’t smooth away every human gesture just because the production has become refined. The rise and fall of a few notes, the places where the end of a line is held back slightly, still have a strong physical feel. Greg Kurstin’s production leaves a place for everything, so the piano, the voice and the rhythm can all be heard at the same time. By the chorus the voices pile up layer by layer, which easily brings to mind the big, sweeping pop rock of the seventies.

Just Two Girls then uses this brightness on the closeness between girls. It has a slightly chatty tone, the melody is light, and the drumbeat keeps the whole song moving forward. I really like that it is willing to put friendship at the center of a song. The small gestures between two people, the understanding that needs no explanation, are worth singing about seriously here, and they weigh no less than romance.

After Leaning Against the Wall and Passenger Seat slow things down, Ellie sings more loosely. She is now very good at handling the pause in the middle of a sentence, and she doesn’t need every last note to land beautifully. In some places only a breath is left, and the next line picks up afterward, which feels more like really speaking. Passenger Seat is not long, and its feeling isn’t stretched out over and over, so it sounds like it leaves some room.

Play It Out in the middle carries a slightly tired kind of persistence. The music is still gentle, but the pull between people is not easy. One thing I find interesting about The Clearing is that it is more and more willing to keep things that are hard to take inside pleasant arrangements. Several songs seem smooth on the surface, and only when you listen closely do you find that the person speaking is actually still hesitating.

Bread Butter Tea Sugar is a turning I like. The title sounds like a casual list of everyday items, but the rhythm can’t quite sit still, with a more flexible, more playful spring. The album needs a song like this at this point. The few songs before it tidy up the melody and the sound too neatly, and if it kept going like that it would get a bit sleepy. This song lets the band show some of their playfulness again.

Safe in the World and Midnight Song stay in a softer tone. The use of harmony changes the mood more than fierce guitars would, and Ellie’s voice is held up without sinking completely. This treatment suits the need for safety in the songs, where closeness and unease can exist in the same sentence.

In White Horses, Joel Amey’s singing matters especially. When the two voices join, the space of the album suddenly widens. His voice has a plain, slightly rough edge, which answers Ellie’s brighter, more extended way of singing. Here you can hear that they are still a band, and that the differences between the members change the shape of a song.

The final song, The Sofa, is easily understood as a song about growing up, but what I like more is the unhurried feeling it writes. At a certain age, it seems something major is supposed to change in your life, but a familiar home, daily routine and the people around you may already be worth treasuring enough. The repeating piano makes this thought feel solid, and when the instruments spread out afterward, it still doesn’t turn into a grand announcement about oneself.

I also have a small reservation about this album. The production of several songs is too rounded, and there is little that suddenly pricks through between sections. The moments with a sense of danger in Blue Weekend are much fewer here. The Clearing is easier to listen to from start to finish, but in some places, after listening, I only remember that it sounded good and can’t recall which song it was.

But when The Sofa ends, I still feel that this change has its reasons. Ellie no longer always needs to lower her voice or suddenly scream to prove there is feeling in a song. Now she can sing an ordinary sentence wide open, and the band is willing to slow down with her. The most comfortable part of this album is exactly this ease.