Photo credit: Jordan Hemingway

WOLF ALICE are back.

After weeks of teasing the follow-up to 2017’s ‘Visions of a Life’, the band have confirmed that their third album ‘Blue Weekend’ will be released on 11th June.

They’ve also shared its majestic lead single ‘The Last Man On Earth’, a Kurt Vonnegut-inspired track that opens with a simple piano melody and gradually unfolds into a grand, powerful wall of sound.

For a band who have always signalled the beginning of a new era with a storming, moshpit-inciting banger (think ‘Giant Peach’ and ‘Yuk Foo’), ‘The Last Man On Earth’ sees them adopt a different strategy altogether. It is subtle yet powerful, putting all the spotlight on Ellie Rowsell’s emotive vocals as she dissects the self-importance of our society. “You’ve really missed a trick when it comes to love. Always seeking what you don’t have, like what you do ain’t enough” she sings in a half-whisper.

It’s not until about halfway through that the song changes course as the rest of the band delicately build up layers of sound around her with Beatles-esque psych riffs and the kind of soaring atmospherics that are built for arenas. Taking their sound to serene new heights, what started off as an intimate moment builds masterfully into something bigger and more anthemic.

Rowsell elaborates on the song in a statement “It’s about the arrogance of humans. I’d just read Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle and I had written the line “Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from god” in my notes. But then I thought: “Uh, your peculiar travel suggestion isn’t a dancing lesson from god, it’s just a travel suggestion! Why does everything need to mean something more?”

An extraordinary indicator of what’s to come from their third album ‘Blue Weekend’, ‘The Last Man On Earth’ sees Wolf Alice ease into a new chapter with confidence and grace. It’s a sublime return from one of the UK’s finest guitar bands.

‘Blue Weekend’ arrives on 11th June via Dirty Hit.

Watch the Jordan Hemingway-directed video below.