Visions of a Life - A Review
ALBUM - Visions of a Life by Wolf Alice
Thought I would try something different this week. As I hope I made clear in my first post, music is an integral part of my life. I have a playlist for everything. And I thought as part of my blogging journey, I would like to involve my greatest interest. So today, I am going to try my hand at an album review - Wolf Alice’s second record: Visions of a Life.
One thing I hoped not to do, but was unable to stop myself from doing, was comparing this album to their first album: My Love is Cool which I enjoyed immensely. What in my opinion was a marvelously crafted first album left them with big boots to fill for their follow up. Some of the songs from Visions of a Life certainly did live up to expectation, while other parts of the album left me feeling a little (but only slightly) disappointed…
Track Listing:
- Heavenward
- Yuk Foo
- Beautifully Unconventional
- Don’t Delete the Kisses
- Planet Hunter
- Sky Musings
- Formidable Cool
- Space & Time
- Sadboy
- St. Purple & Green
- After the Zero Hour
- Visions of a Life
With Heavenward working perfectly as a melodic introduction, starting from small places and building to an exciting crescendo of angry guitars so well known to a Wolf Alice fan, naturally I was optimistic. Ellie Rowsell simply has the most amazing voice (I aspire to be even a smidgen as cool as she is) - I dare any of you to not be impressed and immensely jealous at the places she can take her voice to. She will grace you with beauty and perfection in songs such as Heavenward, which amazingly don’t feel at all out of place next to polar opposites full of anger and shouting. This is what I was expecting from Yuk Foo, but I admit I was disappointed by this particular addition to the album. It felt forced, as if extra teenage angst had been added just for good measure. But it’s too much - repetition of “I don’t give a shit” just seemed all too unnecessary and clichéd.
From the low point of the album to a hat-trick of brilliance: Beautifully Unconventional, Don’t Delete the Kisses and Planet Hunter are all fantastic examples of why you should add Wolf Alice to your music library immediately. From the joyous guitar riff in Beautifully Unconventional and the eery theatrics of Ellie’s vocals in Planet Hunter these three songs could play on repeat forever and I wouldn’t be disappointed. Don’t Delete the Kisses reminds me of the secret track from their first album (at the end of The Wonderwhy), with its lusty and longing lyrics that beautifully describe infatuation. It shares with Sky Musings a sense of desperation: these two songs contain a fair amount of spoken word which certainly make them feel very raw and alive: you feel at one with the personal meditation. On further listening I find that it is a truly enchanting song, rich and smoky - one that epitomises strong black coffee.
As someone who refuses to move with the times, I insist on buying my music on record (I do also use Spotify because I’m not a total luddite). Therefore, I invariably see albums in two halves: the first side and the second, or in the case of Wolf Alice’s double album; the first disc and the second. The second half begins with Formidable Cool which in my head I have paired with Beautifully Unconventional, don’t ask me why - my brain works in strange ways sometimes. Formidable Cool is sultry and jumpy and I can’t help but dance terribly and awkwardly to it (that’s nothing against the song, I’m just a horrible dancer). With a jolting end we are thrown into Space & Time. I can only describe this song as jubilant. With a hearty guitar riff and strong percussion it is everything I have grown to love about Wolf Alice.
Track 9, Sadboy had me worried to begin with, it seemed slow and unexciting, but it does indeed climb to a satisfying and colourful end. Wolf Alice really know how to make guitar music touch your soul. St. Purple & Green is electrifying and delicate all at once and shows off yet again Ellie’s vocal capabilities. When the drums are stripped back, the song transforms again and just gets better and better. As a whole, I personally see this album as a theatrical exploration. With some songs being rich and stompy, others sound as if they are visiting you from somewhere deep in the forest of a Midsummer Night’s Dream. After the Zero Hour is exactly this: a transcendent journey into something magical. The closing track and title track for the album, Visions of a Life, concludes our journey and returns us back to Wolf Alice normality.
In full, the album is a definite success, no two ways about it. I’d say I prefer the first half to the second, simply because although I find the theatrics of the second half enticing, it felt a bit lazy to me in places. Perhaps this is just because I do love Wolf Alice for their angry guitar riffs and would often shy away from anything too melodic: the majority of the bands I like have male singers and the singing is far from crisp and beautiful. What can I say, I like a more edgy sound, I want my music to have raw emotion! As has happened to me many times with second albums, I listen to them once and don’t like them. But having listened to Visions of a Life over and over for this post, I got past the disappointed phase. On first listen, I was so upset: this wasn’t the Wolf Alice I had loved. But with more diligent listening, I saw past this and really began to enjoy each song, including even Yuk Foo. I stand by my earlier critique - there is something not quite right about it for me, but any Wolf Alice song is 100 times better than your average popular music nowadays.
Before I sign off for this week, I have a request. Alternative music has such a small audience - I think most people shy away from it because it doesn't all sound happy and clappy like most of the crap you can find on Radio 1. But I implore you, even if you are only mildly intrigued by my review, listen to Wolf Alice. You may not like everything they do, you may not even like it a little bit - and I completely respect that. But if we never give any of these bands the opportunity to make it we will slowly lose our independent music scenes. Give Wolf Alice a chance, in fact give any of the albums I suggest a chance - you may surprise yourself and open up a whole world of amazing music you never knew existed. Think of the possibilities that await you! I would so love to hear what you think of Visions of a Life, so if you do give it a listen, let me know - write me a comment or drop a message to my Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mymiddlenameisnotjoan/ Until next time!
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