Ellie Rowsell is not interested in easy answers. She knows that life rarely offers them, and if Wolf Alice’s Blue Weekend is any indication, she’s more comfortable sitting with contradictions than tying things up in neat little bows. The band’s third album sprawls across genres—grunge, folk, new wave, punk, dream pop—never settling into one mood for too long. It’s raw, ambitious, and their best yet.
When I catch up with Rowsell and guitarist Joff Oddie, they’re relaxed but sharp, the kind of musicians who understand their process but refuse to over-explain it. “I don’t really think there was any kind of big overarching master plan,” Oddie admits, referring to Blue Weekend’s inception. “We just started writing and saw what happened.”
That much is obvious. The album’s 11 tracks refuse to stay in one place. Where Visions of a Life and My Love Is Cool had moments of unpredictability, Blue Weekend dives straight into the deep end. Take “Smile,” a snarling, venomous rocker that makes its presence known in seconds. Or “How Can I Make It OK?”, which feels like a lost ‘90s alt-pop classic, all smooth synths and shimmering atmosphere. Even “Play the Greatest Hits” is a whiplash-inducing punk blast—90 seconds of unhinged energy that makes you want to throw a chair through a window, but politely.
“I think people assumed that one was about fans yelling ‘Play the hits!’ at us,” Rowsell laughs. “It’s not. It’s literally about wanting to hear the bangers when you go out.” That’s the thing about Wolf Alice—whether they’re playing with nuance or going straight for the jugular, there’s an inherent fun in their music. It’s serious without being self-serious.
That balance extends to their songwriting process. The band will frequently write songs in different styles before deciding which version sticks. “We had full-band versions of ‘Safe From Heartbreak’ and ‘No Hard Feelings’ that we scrapped,” Rowsell says. “It felt like we had to justify doing something stripped back, because being in a band, you think everything has to be big—but sometimes the song is best in its rawest form.”
Despite their constant evolution, the band still gets labeled as “rock’s next big hope,” a title that feels both accurate and restrictive. But they aren’t interested in fitting any one mold. Blue Weekend isn’t a straight-up concept album, but its structure and visual companion piece—11 interconnected music videos—suggest a world-building approach. “We put a lot of thought into the tracklisting,” Oddie explains. “We wanted it to feel like a journey from beginning to end, and the videos are an extension of that.”
If Wolf Alice were ever a band concerned with playing it safe, those days are over. Blue Weekend is bold, sprawling, and refuses to cater to expectations. Even its themes wrestle with duality—happiness and heartbreak, nostalgia and moving on. “Why does the end of a relationship have to be miserable?” Rowsell asks on one track. The album doesn’t provide easy answers, but that’s the point. Life isn’t simple. Neither is Wolf Alice. And that’s exactly why we keep listening.
Watch the interview above and then check out the videos below.
