After a seriously long apprenticeship on the live circuit, Wolf Alice are finally flavour of the month. It's hard to believe that My Love Is Cool is the debut album from Ellie Rowsell (vocals, guitar), Joff Oddie (guitar), Theo Ellis (bass), and Joel Amey (drums). The London quartet seems to have been doing the rounds for years now. Indeed, your humble correspondent caught them in a suitably sweaty little venue in Bristol in late 2013 and was highly impressed by their blend of distorted shoegazing and angry rock, characterised by debut single 'Fluffy', released in February of that year.
One criticism this listener had of their live set was that it swerved perhaps a little to severely through genres, ethereal folk one minute and pounding rock the next. This album, however, seems to have blended their sometimes disparate strands together into a cohesive whole.
It kicks off with the folky dream-pop of 'Turn To Dust', followed quickly by the relentlessly catchy indie of former single, 'Bros', which isn't unlike The Cranberries in their heyday in terms of nailing the sweet/heavy dynamic. 'Your Loves Whore' is built on a stop/start rhythm and a scorching guitar sound that's like sun-kissed shoegazing, while the catchy 'Freazy' has echoes of the late, lamented Curve: all it's missing is Alan Moulder's trademark production. The melodic guitar pop of 'Silk' is home to some pretty dark lyrics, and 'Soapy Water' similarly couches black thoughts inside a skin of spacey dream pop.
The angrier side comes to the fore on the heavy, buzzsaw guitars of 'You're A Germ' and 'Lisbon', while the meaty slabs of prime rock that make up current 7" 'Giant Peach' tip their cap to the heyday of Black Sabbath. The delicious distortion ensures that 'Fluffy' remains a heady rush of grungy guitars and hummable melody, before the leave us with the bittersweet but anthemic 'The Wonderwhy'.
Slicker than their live show, My Love Is Cool sees Wolf Alice shifting through the gears from winsome to raging without stalling their engines once. Impressive.