Wolf Alice

★★★★

Blue Weekend DIRTY HIT. CD/DL/LP

North Londoners get it together Traffic-style at lockdown Somerset Airbnb.

Wolf Alice look back on their first decade by way of two Number 2 UK albums out of two, a Grammy nomination for Moaning Lisa Smile (rare among sincere Simpsons tributes) and a Mercury Prize. Ellie Rowsell (voice), Joff Oddie (guitar), Theo Ellis (bass) and drummer Joel Amey leant into tour fatigue by decamping to Somerset to crack third LP Blue

Weekend with Arcade Fire producer Marcus Dravs. Lowdown opening salvo The Beach emerges from the tapping of a neighbour doing DIY, as Rowsell summons Macbeth (“When will we three meet again?”) and sing-talks us through a dodgy hook-up (“Vibes are kinda wrong here; I think he is a bad man”). A breathy soundworld throbs with chillout opportunity and toggles toothache-sweet grunge-buzz, Laurel Canyon lilt (Safe From Heartbreak) and skyward soundtrack The Last Man On Earth. Alive with confessional ideas, even the lupine post-Pixies novelty Play The Greatest Hits should raise a happy howl.