With “Bloom, Baby Bloom,” Wolf Alice accept their role as rock gods

The British band return with the first taste of their new album, The Clearing.

It’s appropriate that the first new Wolf Alice song in four years deals with the notion of revival. Getting the band back together is far from Ellie Rowsell’s mind, though. She cycles through anger, pain, and self-belief on “Bloom, Baby Bloom,” a song that uses masculine rock star tropes to underline her experiences as a woman. Rowsell’s vocal gymnastic routine begins with an opening verse delivered in falsetto where she lashes out at a “fucking baby, baby man” and flicks him into obscurity with the sharp, “See this fire in my eyes boy, that’s your flash in the pan.” A jazzy piano filling in the gaps of his deceit.

The derision isn’t all aimed in one direction, though. Rowsell admits her scorn is masking her own shortcomings and she pleads for an opportunity to drop her guard. “I’m so sick and tired of trying to play it hard,” she howls at herself as the drums and a fizzing bassline kick in. The frustration of trying to be a woman who is strong, confident, and in control while being at the mercy of yet another disappointing man spews out and lands in her own lap, leaving her in a mess she’s inevitably left to clear up alone.

“Bloom, Baby Bloom” is the first single from Wolf Alice’s new album The Clearing, due August 29. It feels instructive that the artwork is a solo image of Rowsell, her bandmates nowhere to be seen. In press materials for the song, she says she wanted to subvert the macho and histrionic Guns N’ Roses sound while explaining that she is no longer afraid of being dismissed as a “girl singer.” With that in mind “Bloom, Baby Bloom” is an impressive act of self-aggrandizement, not from a place of egotistical striving but a deep-seated acceptance of strength: “Watch me and you’ll see just what I’m worth.”