After teasing fans via social media Wolf Alice finally released their latest LP, Visions of a Life on Friday, September 29. While extremely different from their first LP, My Love is Cool, released in 2015, Visions of a Life has a good variety of sounds, but still keeps some of the original sounds and styles that Wolf Alice fans love. The band moved from a softer folk-y musical style to a more alt rock style, while keeping their grunge and folk sound.

The first single released was “Yuk Foo‰Û, which was a loud, upbeat, very grunge-y song, a stark contrast to the band‰’s original folk sound. It was refreshing since it showed the audience that they were not going to get more of the same music and that the band was going to try to out-do their first record. The song personally got me pumped for the new record, and got many other fans excited to see what the rest of the record would contain.

Then Wolf Alice released “Don‰’t Delete the Kisses‰Û, which starts very softly with a prominent drum beat. The start of the song almost sounds like a christmas song with the soft voice and soprano pitch. The rest of the song is very smooth and conveys emotions that many of us can relate to such as self doubt, fear, and skepticism.

The third, and most recent single released was “Beautifully Unconventional‰” which is a very catchy song with a retro-looking music video. The guitar riff behind the chorus just doesn‰’t leave your head, which I am not complaining about. The song is based on the 1988 movie “Heathers‰” according to Ellie Rowsell, lead singer of the band, in a BBC Radio 1 interview, where she said she imagined herself as Christian Slater.

“Heavenward‰” was a good song to start the record out with because it has a style reminiscent of what Wolf Alice has made their name with, but not too similar as to be considered more of the same. I feel like many artists have to grapple between the fear of their second record not matching or exceeding the success of the first as well as the fear of their new music being too different that they lose their original fanbase. “Heavenward is a good enough balance between Wolf Alice‰’s “original‰” sound and their new sound to keep old fans and attract new ones who may like the new style.

Visions of a Life is a refreshing album, one of the best I have heard from the alternative genre in a while. Wolf Alice is definitely experimenting with sounds and concepts that will win them many awards and a lot of recognition from the music community.

Wolf alice is touring this fall and will be at the 9:30 Club on December 8, 2017.