Wolf Alice

White Horses is the only song on The Clearing to see drummer Joel Amey take on lead vocals before a harmonious duet with Ellie takes hold.

White Horses follows on from the huge album singles ‘Bloom Baby Bloom’ and most recently, ‘The Sofa’ which the band shared right after their glorious sunset performance on The Other Stage at Glastonbury; the cause of many a tear being shed in the field of dreams. Combining fan favourites such as Bros and Don’t Delete The Kisses with new songs Bloom Baby Bloom and The Sofa, the slot felt like a victory lap.

Musically it takes more influence from trippy dance music melded with the signature 70s rock of the rest of the album. It has an expansive overtone that holds endless possibilities, going off on wonderful tangents that build to the crescendo. Bursting with understated psychedelic power, the spirited lines profess: “Know who I am, that’s important to me / Do what I can to see the wood from the trees”. It’s simply euphoric.

What started as a demo born from lyrics committed to his Notes app during a rare car journey with his mum, aunt and sister, Joel returned to the verse towards the end of recording the album to expand on a theme. He then took the bones of the track to the band who together built it out to produce a song fitting with the overall sound and vision of The Clearing.

Joel explains: “I was inspired by the songs we had already that were becoming The Clearing – the sonic shapes we were creating, the big acoustics, the harmonies – but I wanted to underpin it with a driving krautrock beat.”

And the lyrics are about his family: “We’ve never really known where we came from in terms of heritage until recently. My mum and aunt were adopted, and for years it posed questions of identity and where our roots lay for all of us but, for me, they never seemed like answers I needed to find out.”

As he travelled the world with Wolf Alice throughout his 20s, his sense of home became vaguer: “I was on this big adventure with my best mates, never feeling the need to call one place home, living out of a suitcase, all the stuff that comes with being in a band. I felt that the answers to ‘Who am I?’ and ‘Where do I come from?’ didn’t matter so much – I’d chosen my family, and they were the people around me.”

But, as with many things in life, as Joel got older there was a growing curiosity to get some answers on his background. The curiosity came with some excitement and some fear, but also the security that whatever he might find at the end of that journey, he would always be grateful for the people he already had standing by his side: “White Horses was me trying to put all that into a tune, and Ellie, Joff and Theo all helped me along the way.”

Written in Seven Sisters and recorded in LA with Grammy-winning master producer Greg Kurstin last year, The Clearing reveals where Wolf Alice stand sonically in 2025, delivering a supremely confident collection of songs bursting with ambition, ideas and emotion to create a truly timeless record.