While putting together a mixtape for my cross country road trip to see my best friends and favorite bands, Wolf Alice’s debut full-length My Love Is Cool dominates the tracklist. Wolf Alice is a London-based band made up of Ellie Roswell (vocals, guitar), Joff Oddie (guitars, vocals), Theo Ellis (bass), and Joel Amey (drums).
My Love Is Cool opens with “Turn to Dust”, the most vulnerable and quiet song, with multiple voice tracks flitting around one another. Roswell’s voice shakes and sounds like it’s about to break as she sings about “beady eyes”. Wolf Alice show their diversity as they instantly switch to an anthem about best friends. “Bros” is filled with lines that will prompt listeners to text their friends “That is so us! This is our song!”. The video fits the nostalgia of the song perfectly.
The repetition of “I can only love you more” in “Your Love’s Whore” leaves you with the urge to sing along with your head thrown back, as much of a cliche as that is, but it’s genuine. My Love Is Cool continually requires audience participation, with the counting bit in “You’re a Germ” begging to be yelled by masses of young fans at live shows, which is presented in this (literally and figuratively) electric live performance.
Drummer Joel Amey takes the mic in the slowest and longest track, “Swallowtail.” It’s acoustic, but they kept it Wolf Alice by adding 30 seconds of thrash to the end. Roswell comes back in with the dreamier “Soapy Water,” pondering “If life is easy, then what is this?”. The lyrics throughout My Love Is Cool are juvenile in the best way. That feeling is reinforced with mentions of parents, “I got plans”, and menthol cigarettes. This is an album I would have blasted through my headphones at 16 while avoiding responsibilities and being angsty, because the lyrics aren’t bombastic. You could tell these songs mean something to the people performing them, along with the audience. Roswell wouldn’t be able to scream in “Fluffy” so ruthlessly if she didn’t mean it.
My Love Is Cool comes to a close with a short lo-fi demo at the end of “The Wonderwhy”, with Roswell singing as softly as she was in the opening track. This being their debut album with years of songwriting saved up, Wolf Alice blew me out of the water. I can only hope they continue on this righteous path and don’t get “second record syndrome” because I am sure to exhaust this album quickly.
Rating: 4/5