The Clearing — Wolf Alice

album reviews

Sep 7

Written By krizia

**ALBUM:** The Clearing
**ARTIST:** Wolf Alice
**LABEL:** Columbia Records
**RELEASE DATE:** August 22, 2025
**GENRE:** Soft Rock
**RATING:** 8.5/10

Wolf Alice’s latest album, The Clearing, is not just a shift in sound—it’s an invitation to inhabit a world that feels at once familiar and quietly transformative. From the opening notes, it wraps itself around the listener, gentle but insistent, asking you to slow down, to notice how each sound resonates not just in your ears, but in your body and memory. At first, the album may appear soft, almost tentative, a departure from the jagged energy of the band’s previous work. It takes time, a few spins, to let its warmth settle in. But once it does, The Clearing blooms—layer by layer, note by note—into a space that feels both intimate and expansive.

What sets this album apart is its careful balance of reflection and movement. Ellie Rowsell’s lyrics are deceptively simple, like whispered confessions written in plain language but brimming with feeling. Each song carries traces of love’s tenderness, loss’s quiet ache, and longing’s steady pull. Across the record, The Clearing explores how we hurt, how we heal, and how hope quietly persists even in the most fragile moments.

The album is also a journey in resilience. It does not dwell in darkness but seeks light after struggle. Gone are the loud guitars and restless energy that once defined Wolf Alice’s sound. In their place are spacious arrangements, lingering melodies, and textures that invite the listener to breathe. Ellie’s vocals move with ease between whispered intimacy and raw clarity, creating a sense that the music is alive, shifting and pulsing as though in sync with the listener’s own heartbeat. Even the silences between songs feel meaningful, carrying their own weight, a subtle invitation to reflect on what has come before and what is yet to arrive.

From the opening title track to the closing moments of the record, The Clearing is a study in contrasts. Light and shadow coexist, love and loss are intertwined, and strength emerges alongside fragility. Ellie’s voice mirrors this duality, gentle one moment, fierce the next, capturing the unpredictability of human emotion. The music itself moves like sunlight across a landscape, sometimes soft and warm, sometimes piercingly clear, often both at once. It’s an album that listens back as much as it asks to be heard, and that reciprocity is part of what makes it feel so alive.

Tracks like “Thorns” and “Bread Butter Tea Sugar” showcase the album’s quiet power. In the former, vulnerability is laid bare, raw and unflinching, yet threaded with a sense of slow, steady healing. In the latter, there’s a playful energy, a reminder that reflection need not be heavy, that lightness and introspection can coexist. Across the album, there’s an attention to detail in both arrangement and emotion, a sense that nothing is rushed, nothing is wasted, and every note carries meaning.

The Clearing is not an album for hurried listening. It demands attention, patience, and an openness to the spaces between sounds. But for those willing to give themselves over to it, the rewards are lasting. The record lingers, echoing in quiet moments, shaping the way we feel and the way we think about our own emotions. It becomes a companion, a gentle guide through vulnerability and hope, reflection and renewal.

For anyone seeking music that is thoughtful without being heavy, tender without being fragile, and intimate without being small, The Clearing is a revelation. It is Wolf Alice’s most personal work to date, a record that grows with you, that reveals new layers with each listen, and that leaves a lasting impression long after the final note fades. In a world of noise and rush, it is a quiet invitation: to slow down, to listen fully, and to let music meet you where you are.