Wolf Alice’s Visions Of A Life finds beauty in chaos

Wolf Alice’s Ellie Rowsell has an ethereal voice akin to Cocteau Twins’ Liz Fraser, one that would be in danger of drifting away were it not tethered to the might of her band. That lacy dreaminess is balanced by a ferociously heavy sonic wall, making for a sound that defies easy categorization. It’s made even more difficult by Visions Of A Life, the London quartet’s sophomore release, which varies that sound from song to song. While that kind of thing can be jarring (look to Alt-J’s latest, for example), Rowsell’s voice provides a surreally dreamlike connecting thread.
Epic opener “Heavenward” finds Rowsell’s voice dissolving into a sonic mix that’s just north of cacophonous, while lead single “Yuk Foo” ramps up the speed and intensity as she rattles off a stream of punk profanity (“I want to fuck all the people I meet / Fuck all my friends and all the people in the street ’cos / You bore me / You bore me to death / Well deplore me / Well I don’t give a shit”). The more complex compositions, like “Don’t Delete The Kisses” and “Planet Hunter,” are much more representative—the former finding Rowsell using a cool speak-sing, while the latter’s layered vocals evoke the sharply sweet harmonies of Veruca Salt.