Following a four-year break after their sensational Mercury Prize victory with Visions of a Life, Wolf Alice have returned out of the blue (weekend) with a spine-tingling new track titled ‘The Last Man on Earth.’ 

As they released the lead single from their new album Blue Weekend (excuse the pun above), it is safe to say the London 4-piece surprised us all with their creative direction. Worlds away from the chaos of tracks like ‘Yuk Foo,’ the sparkling piano intro is instantly reminiscent of a Lily Allen’s wintery cover of Keane’s ‘Somewhere Only We Know.’ As frontwoman Ellie Rowsell’s spine-tingling, soothing vocals return, the song progresses into a more laid-back version of the Wolf Alice we know and love, finished with a smooth overlaying guitar in the second half of the song. 

Their brilliance even sees them recreate the sound of a choir with just the beautifully layered voices that belong to Rowsell and bandmate Joel Amey. As the song explodes into a fuller, orchestral sound, it immediately transports the listener to the tranquility of the ocean. The instrumentals could absolutely belong on a film score and the gliding strings display an almost Hans Zimmer-esque side to the band that we have not been exposed to before.

Rowsell explained how difficult the song was to record, with the emotion attached to the lyricism and sound almost mirroring ‘her own existential crisis,’ perhaps explaining the four-year wait as they strove for perfection after closing their previous era with a seminal two nights at London’s Brixton Academy. When Wolf Alice’s third instalment arrives this June, it will surely send them shooting towards becoming one of rock’s modern-day titans.

Header image: Wolf Alice. Credit: Jordan Hemingway.