‘Bloom Baby Bloom’ marks the beginning of an exciting new era for Wolf Alice. A fiercely powerful and fervent introduction to The Clearing, it’s an arresting ode to growth, evolution and expansion in life, music and art. With its rolling bass riff, this first piece of music in three years, is a whip-smart de-testosteroned twist on heavy rock. “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,” Ellie Rowsell notes. “I’ve used the guitar as a shield in the past, playing it has perhaps been some way to reject the ‘girl singer in band’ trope, but I wanted to focus on my voice as a rock instrument so it’s been freeing to put the guitar down and reach a point where I don’t feel like I need to prove that I’m a musician.”