Opening with hazy synths and a heartbeat-like pulse, the track places Ellie Rowsell’s voice in the spotlight like never before.
Produced by Greg Kurstin, the track hints at a shift toward a more pop-inflected sound without losing the band’s signature grit. From the biting opener — “Do I have to make you sit on your hands? / Fucking baby, baby man” — to the cathartic chorus, the song is blossoming in every way.
Speaking on the track, Rowsell shared: “I wanted a rock song, to focus on the performance side and sing like Axl Rose — but about being a woman.” Often using her guitar as a shield in the past, she describes this new phase as liberating: “It was freeing to put it down and finally feel like I don’t have to prove I’m a musician anymore.” That intention rings out clearly — her voice becomes the instrument of resistance, rage, and rebirth.
The single is built on contrasts — beauty and dirt, strength and despair, self-love and self-doubt. The bridge cuts deep: “And if you knew me / You’d know that it would hurt / Feel like I won’t flower in spoiled earth” — a reminder that growth can feel impossible when you’re forced to thrive in poisoned soil. Still, the song insists: bloom anyway.
The repetition of the phrase “play it hard” becomes both a taunt and a breakdown, until the chorus erupts into a triumphant mantra of messy, feminine resilience: “But I’ll bloom, baby, bloom / Watch me, yeah, you’ll see just what I’m worth.
The music video, directed by Colin Solal Cardo (Charli XCX, Robyn, Christine and the Queens), builds on that theatricality. Inspired by Bob Fosse’s cult 1979 film ‘All That Jazz’, the clip places Rowsell among a wave of dancers in a dizzying, surreal choreography helmed by Ryan Heffington — the Emmy-winning mastermind behind Sia’s ‘Chandelier’, ‘Euphoria’, and Kenzo’s viral campaign with Margaret Qualley. It’s a visual explosion of control and chaos, beauty and breakdown — a fitting mirror to the song’s themes.
And while the band blooms artistically, they’re also speaking out politically. This week, guitarist Joff Oddie addressed UK Parliament on behalf of the Featured Artists Coalition, urging action to save the UK’s crumbling live music scene. With post-Brexit touring restrictions, rising costs, and a wave of grassroots venue closures, Oddie warned: “One of the things we risk is that music becomes a middle- and upper-class sport.” In classic Wolf Alice fashion, the personal is political — and the art is never just aesthetic.
To top it all off, the single arrives just as the band prepares for a surprise run of Irish shows — their first live performances since late 2022. Wolf Alice will play Set Theatre in Kilkenny (May 19), Cyprus Avenue in Cork (May 20), and Dolan’s Warehouse in Limerick (May 21) — intimate venues for a band known to conquer festival stages. These shows will precede appearances at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend and Glastonbury this summer, making it clear that the Mercury Prize-winning quartet are gearing up for a massive return.
Wolf Alice have always been shapeshifters - weaving between alt-rock, dream pop, grunge and balladry. However, ‘Bloom Baby Bloom’ feels like their most unfiltered emotional exorcism yet. It’s punchy, poetic, and defiantly feminine in a way that doesn’t ask for approval - it commands space.
If ‘Bloom Baby Bloom’ is any indication, ‘The Clearing’ will be Wolf Alice’s boldest statement yet. It’s Wolf Alice at their most self-assured, daring anyone to underestimate them again.
Watch them bloom. You’ve been warned.
Lydia Sedda
Image:‘The Clearing’ Official Album Cover
