James Kelly
I don’t normally lay down and listen to an album straight through; I don’t sit still for very long to do so. When you’re on the beach and tired of listening to the banter around you, the best option is to plug in and tune out. This is my first album review ever, so if I did this wrong I apologize. I’ll stick to the car reviews from here on. I felt obligated to write one for this album by one of my favorite bands because this is the album that made them my favorite. Wolf Alice’s “Blue Weekend” from last year was my summer anthem this year.
The English alt-rock group, debuting in 2010 as an acoustic duo with Ellie Rowsell as lead singer and Joff Oddie as guitarist, officially formed their band in 2012. In their latest album they pull from their London roots for songs like “Smile” and “Play The Greatest Hits”, both gushing with classic Brit rock and punk respectively. The songs I blast the most are “Delicious Things”, “How Can I Make It Ok?”, and “The Beach II”. These are all what I, and I assume others as well, call story songs. These three tell stories of making it big-time, being there for people and wanting to understand, to enjoying those special moments we take for granted. The instrumental parts in “How Can I Make It Ok?” are really fun when, dare I say, the beat drops. It’s just one of those tunes that you wait in anticipation for the guitars to wail while you’re sitting at a red light. I should know, I speak from experience. The guitar at the end of “The Beach II” scratches that itch in your brain that only music can. Go check out what I’m babbling about for yourself, you’ll understand.
The last few songs on the album are titled as “The Pool Sessions”, which I can only imagine was recorded with the bare-essentials. The backyard concert vibe these recorded versions have are absolutely fantastic. They returned to their acoustic roots for the re-recorded versions of “Smile”, “How Can I Make It Okay?”, “Safe From Heartbreak”, and “The Last Man On Earth”. Sitting on the beach listening to the album all the way through was fantastic since that’s the best setting I can think of for an album run-through, especially when the first song is titled “The Beach”. The band covered “Bobby” by Alex G and is listed as a Pool Sessions song. The addition of this cover adds in a dash of country, singer-songwriter to the soup, giving the album its unparalleled well-roundedness.
Overall this album is a great introduction into Wolf Alice, I would highly recommend this as a first before moving on to their earlier stuff if you want to throw a new band into your playlist. Blue Weekend will satisfy all of your musical tastes, whether you’re a soft-rock connoisseur, a punk junky, or just an all-out alternative fan. I first heard them when they released the playlists for Forza Horizon 5 (there’s my car connection) and I’ve been hooked ever since.
Recommended songs: How Can I Make It Okay?, Smile, The Beach II, No Hard Feelings.
Catch James’s show, The Engine Block, an hour full of useless car information and general nonsense hosted by James Kelly and Colin Seeman.