LOS ANGELES, CA- It takes less than five seconds for “Bloom Baby Bloom” to pull you under. That piano baseline—hypnotic in its repetition—sets the stage like a drumroll before detonation. Then Ellie Rowsell’s whispered vocals slip in, tense and deliberate, like she’s got a secret to tell and the whole world’s ear is burning to hear it.
This is Wolf Alice at their most theatrical, most precise, and somehow still at their most raw. There’s a deep sense of control here—a slow-build pressure that coils through each verse before it all drops away during the bridge, leaving just that bare piano and Rowsell’s breath. And then the chorus explodes in a visceral, uncontainable release. It’s not just cathartic—it’s orchestrated like a storm.
What’s most striking, though, is Ellie Rowsell’s vocal command. From hushed whispers to loud, guttural belts, she covers the emotional gamut and switches modes on a dime with breathtaking ease. It’s a masterclass in vocal dynamics—never showy, always intentional—and it gives the song its primal, almost theatrical pulse.
Lyrically, the track plays with vulnerability and rage, control and surrender. Lines like “I’m no bottle in a paper bag, I just am who I am” hit like feminist rallying cries disguised as taunts, while the recurring “I’m so sick and tired of trying to play it hard” peels back the emotional labor of keeping it together. And when she declares “I’ll bloom baby bloom / Watch me and you’ll see just what I’m worth,” it lands like a mantra—defiant, exhausted, triumphant.
And then there’s the video. A brilliantly stylized, Fosse-meets-alt-rock fever dream, directed by Colin Solal Cardo (Charli XCX, Robyn, Christine and the Queens) and choreographed by Emmy-winner Ryan Heffington (Euphoria, Sia, Kenzo). Every gesture is in sync with the song’s heartbeat. Rowsell doesn’t just perform—she commands, with a presence that transcends genre tropes. If this video doesn’t land award nods, it’ll be a glaring oversight.
“Bloom Baby Bloom” is the first release from The Clearing, Wolf Alice’s fourth studio album, due out August 29. Produced by Grammy®-winning powerhouse Greg Kurstin and written between Seven Sisters, London and Los Angeles, the album signals a new level of sonic ambition and emotional clarity for the band.
“I wanted a rock song, to focus on the performance element of a rock song and sing like Axl Rose—but to be singing a song about being a woman,” Rowsell explained. She’s long used her guitar as armor, but The Clearing finds her putting it down, stepping out from behind it, and using her voice as the weapon of choice. And it cuts like truth.
This track also marks the first new music from the band in three years, and it arrives not as a gentle reintroduction but as a thunderclap. A whip-smart, de-testosteroned twist on heavy rock, “Bloom Baby Bloom” is the sound of Wolf Alice reaching a new creative summit—unapologetically, unrelentingly themselves.
Alongside the single and album announcement, the band has unveiled an ambitious, 20-date North American headline tour beginning September 10 in Atlanta and ending at The Wiltern in Los Angeles. It’s their most expansive run yet, culminating in a career-defining show at London’s O2 Arena this December. Festival appearances at Glastonbury and BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend are already locked in for the summer.
It’s a fitting trajectory for a band that has, over the past decade, cemented themselves as generational icons—from the Mercury Prize-winning Visions of a Life to the BRIT Award-winning Blue Weekend. If “Bloom Baby Bloom” is any indication, The Clearing won’t just meet expectations. It’ll blow them wide open.
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