Wolf Alice’s last album, Blue Weekend, set the bar extremely high for the band, so The Clearing is one of my most anticipated albums this year. The expansive production is a new avenue; they’ve swapped the intimate, rough around the edges feel of previous releases for a polished sound with lush layers of instrumentation that give the album an almost theatrical feel. This larger sound also gives frontwoman Ellie Rowsell room to reach new heights with her soaring vocals, which sound better than ever. Having said that, I do miss the grungier Wolf Alice that I first fell in love with - The Clearing may just be a little too clean. LT