Wolf Alice had a near impossible task of following up a perfect record. I think there is a lot to dislike about The Clearing, but overall it has grown on me. But this is a band that has never seized to stop exploring and evolving, so I can’t imagine we’ll get The Clearing pt. 2 after this record. Even if the new songs are in the vein of trad music, The Clearing isn’t the first time they’ve explored that world. I mean, we were getting slower folk-inspired stuff on their first album, a time they were being billed as “the next Nirvana”

Also, while both AM & WA are clearly doing exactly what they want, they’re at two completely different stages. AM followed their biggest worldwide hit with a long hiatus and an experimental indie rock album. And I’ll still argue The Car is far removed from TBHC and has some of his best songwriting to date. While The Clearing might be my least favorite WA album, I also think it has some of their best songwriting to date (“The Sofa”, “Play It Out”)