There’s a particular alchemy to watching a band arrive, not with a bang, nor a reinvention, but in the unshakeable certainty that they’ve evolved to become who they were always meant to be. That’s the feeling that greeted The Clearing, Wolf Alice’s fourth studio album, when it dropped in August 2025.
Recorded in Los Angeles with Grammy-winning producer Greg Kurstin, The Clearing staked a claim to the classic pop/rock lineage the band have long flirted with, but without doing away with the jagged edges and emotional grit that made their earlier music so captivating. Tracks like Bloom Baby Bloom and White Horses showed Wolf Alice at a crossroads: still restless, searching, but at the same time, experienced and infused with a rare confidence that comes not from their fame or profile, but from finding a voice that expresses precisely where they are in the moment.
Ellie Rowsell’s lyrics, intimate and enigmatic, sit at the heart of this record. There’s a sense throughout The Clearing that Wolf Alice are finding peace, comfortable with the journey they’re on, not striving for it as a destination. The record has a more layered and nuanced sound that draws on influences from Fleetwood Mac to Carole King, as well as reflecting on their own sonic evolution. Songs such as The Sofa come across as invitations to reflect and discover the truth that lies within.
The band’s first proper arena run in the UK and Ireland follows, with audiences in Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff and London greeting Wolf Alice with a wave of anticipation. This was again evident in Leeds, at the First Direct Bank Arena on 5 December. Fans packed the cavernous space, united by years of devotion that felt distilled into every verse and chorus. For some, who saw them right back at the beginning in venues like The Cockpit, there’s pride in the band, feeling that they’ve claimed the place on larger stages that is rightly theirs.
22 songs, blending the expansive sensation of The Clearing with deeper cuts from their back catalogue. The stage shimmered like something from a classic Hollywood film, Rowsell and her bandmates owning every inch of the stage and looking entirely at home on the bigger stage. Old favourites like Don’t Delete the Kisses still command singalongs, while newer material felt at home beside them.
What emerged over that run, from Leeds to Glasgow and beyond, was a sense that Wolf Alice are really solidifying their identity. They played with the confidence and reassurance of a band entirely at home with the sound they’re creating, ready to own this new chapter but looking forward to the next. The Clearing doesn’t abandon the turbulence of their past; it elevates it, showing a band maturing into a definitive artistic voice. And in performance, that journey feels lived, palpable, and very much ongoing.
In this moment, Wolf Alice aren’t merely touring an album; they’re inviting us into their clearing. It’s full of light and shadows, and there’s no one else doing it quite like this.
