Visions of a Life
Visions of a Life is the second studio album by English alternative rock band Wolf Alice, released on 29 September 2017 through Dirty Hit.[1] The album received acclaim from music critics and appeared on several year-end lists, as well as winning the 2018 Mercury Prize.[2]
Visions of a Life
Background and release[edit]
In November 2016, drummer Joel Amey said the band is "very much in the middle of writing some new music." In May 2017, the band teased the album by sending mysterious postcards with song titles and lyrics of each of the album tracks to fans on their mailing list, which they later posted on Twitter.[3] On 12 June, the band premiered the lead single "Yuk Foo" on BBC Radio 1,[4] with a lyric video being later uploaded to the band's Vevo channel on YouTube.[5] They announced the release date of their upcoming album Visions of a Life would be on 29 September 2017.[6] The band stated that the album is "pretty varied" and that they wanted to "come out with a big bang," which is why they chose "Yuk Foo" as the first track to be released, adding that the rest of the album is "pretty different to that."[7] The band announced a world tour in support of the album with the dates being posted to the band's official website.[8] The tour includes their biggest headline show to date at Alexandra Palace in London on 24 November.[4] The album was produced by Justin Meldal-Johnsen.[4]
On 5 July, the band released the second single, "Don't Delete the Kisses", and made the album available for pre-order, along with the reveal of the album cover, which features a photo of lead vocalist Ellie Rowsell's aunt, Hellen, "playing the classic game of 'dance round the horse's skull in your Sunday best'".[9][10] The accompanying music video for "Don't Delete the Kisses" was released on 11 August.[11] The third single, "Beautifully Unconventional", was premiered on Annie Mac's BBC Radio 1 show on 14 August, and was subsequently released for digital download and streaming services.[12] A 1950s-inspired music video was released on 11 September.[13] The band released "Heavenward" as the fourth single on 18 September. The song premiered on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 radio show, and subsequently released for digital download and streaming.[14] According to a press release, the song is about the death of a friend.[15] The album's fifth single, "Formidable Cool", was released on 16 February 2018.[16] On 2 March 2018, "Sadboy" was released as the sixth single, followed by an accompanying music video three days later.[17][18] "Space & Time" was released on 8 May 2018 as the seventh single.[19] A music video for the song was released on 30 May 2018.[20]
Composition[edit]
Visions of a Life is primarily an alternative rock[21] and noise rock album,[22] and was noted by numerous critics to take influences from various genres, including shoegaze, punk rock, dream pop, grunge, psychedelia, folk, space rock, synth-pop, hardcore and electronica.[23][24][25][26]
Commercial performance[edit]
Visions of a Life debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart with 19,333 copies sold in its first week,[45] becoming the band's second consecutive album to debut at this position.[46] As of September 2018, the album had sold 57,214 copies in the United Kingdom.[47]