By Sophie Scannell, Music Editor and Aditi Hrisheekesh, Music Deputy Editor
Exhibiting their stratospheric fourth studio album, The Clearing, the band are making a defiant return following their formidable Blue Weekend, a record that comfortably made a spot for itself amongst my personal best of the decade so far. Making history as the only band to have all of their studio albums nominated for the Mercury Prize, the stakes for this tour could hardly be higher.
Still, it’s safe to say that we had no doubts, abandoning our increasingly-imminent coursework at the drop of a hat to jump on the train to Cardiff for the evening. Our utter disbelief on the last train of the night hours later was the not-so-subtle confirmation that we had made exactly the right call.
Glitter has been an emblem of the band from the very beginning, with 2015’s My Love Is Cool leading the aesthetic charge. Since then, the look has been given a hard time by the band in interviews as they’ve matured into more sleek and suave regenerations with albums like 2021’s Blue Weekend.
Now, entering Cardiff’s arena for their second UK stop of their worldwide tour, the stage is familiarly adorned with sparkling streamers that shroud in a star formation above the band, and we could not be happier about the return of the glam. It’s perhaps their most cohesive and polished look to date, still nudging their 20-year-old selves, once swimming about in fluorescent gold glitter, totally unaware of the stardom about to hit them.
With the band leaning heavily on material from The Clearing, with about half the Cardiff set drawn from the new album, veteran live staples were spread throughout the night, maintaining momentum. Tracks like ‘Bros’ and ‘Lipstick On The Glass’ drew huge singalongs early on, the crowd’s voices booming up into the arena rafters showing how these songs have stamped themselves into the band’s live identity over the last decade. The newer songs were shaped to suit the punchy acoustics and stood up beside the older catalogue with a formidable weight.
The Clearing has been no less successful in harnessing the attention of rock and folk fans alike. The tracks are similarly resonant of their core sounds, yet subtle shifts in dynamic seem to simultaneously be taking place. The strident chugging of ‘White Horses’, for example, sees drummer Joel Amey taking the lead in vocals for the first time. This song being one of the many pinnacles of the album (and indeed the setlist), frontwoman Ellie Rowsell delivers its soaring chorus atop a spinning turntable - like a Lazy Susan, if the Susan in question was anything but lazy: a ball of energy in a candy-cane- striped bodysuit.
‘Just Two Girls’ was a thrilling one to see with friends: a love-letter to female friendship and that attentive affection within platonic intimacy that should be celebrated more. Tinged with a breezy synth-pop groove, it is notably tonally different from band’s earlier grittier catalogue.
A testament to the band’s timelessness was laid of plainly in front of us as the crowd roared with equal fervour for both these new tracks and long-beloved favourites from almost a decade ago. Rock anthems ‘Formidable Cool’ and ‘You’re a Germ’ remain among some of the band’s best, and their carefully set place at the 2025 setlist table was more than appreciated by an unwaveringly loyal crowd.
Drenched in red and blue police lights and armed with a megaphone for ‘Yuk Foo’, the band dove headfirst into these heralded oldies. ‘Silk’ and ‘Giant Peach’ followed suit, each track very taxing in lung capacity, yet steeped sweetly in nostalgia all the same.
By the time ‘Don’t Delete The Kisses’ arrived as the set’s closer, its reputation as the band’s most recognised song was fully justified. A song where Rowsell consciously lays out emotional vulnerability, an attempt to express a moment of tentative affection in plain terms before doubt closes the door on it. The question of what if it’s not for me? rings loud and clear in the arena — a sense of unity within self-doubt and the agonising push-and-pull of connection. That interior monologue of overthinking is flipped inside out, washed with a synth-y glow. Those feelings that can feel pretty lonely and isolating find catharsis in the expansive arena, as the crowd sings along word-for-word to this incredibly emotive track.
Featured image: Epigram / Eve DaviesWhat is your favourite Wolf Alice tune?
