Wolf Alice's fourth LP pursues larger-scale production while maintaining themes of reaching beyond the self and measuring the distance between who one is and who one could choose to be. The band remains adored locally and formidable live, lacking a single definitive crowd-pleaser hit but offering honest, grungy moments like "Fluffy" and the naïve charm of "Don't Delete the Kisses." The record features glossier instrumentation and dramatized arrangements, with opener "Thorns" using melodrama, strings and a looping refrain, and "Bloom Baby Bloom" delivering higher energy tempered by acidic vocals. Ambition sometimes yields big shapes that miss essential emotional depth.
If you're an indie rock band, especially a British one, and you make it big, it's probably because of That Song. The one you play at every show; the one people's parents know. You don't like this song anymore, if you ever did-it's not daring musically or lyrically, nor particularly difficult to perform. When you play it, it's with an air of faux reluctance, of being above it all. You might not even bother singing-the crowd is doing it for you.
The stakes for this fourth LP, then, are the same as they've been since the first: adored locally, incredible live; could this album make them huge? Well, it's a glitzier production than any past release, but it's sometimes unsatisfying in the way shadow puppets are: big, strong shapes missing an essential depth. Opener "Thorns"-rich, bitter-continues the self-inquiry with melodrama, strings, and a looping refrain about making "a song and dance about it."
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