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Apr 20, 2021 By Mark Redfern

Britain’s Wolf Alice are releasing a new album, Blue Weekend, on June 11 via Dirty Hit/RCA. Now they have shared the album’s second single, the bass-heavy “Smile,” via a video for the song. Jordan Hemingway directed the video, which finds the band performing the song in a pub. Watch it below, followed by the band’s upcoming UK tour dates.

Frontwoman Ellie Rowsell had this to say about “Smile” in a press release: “This is one of the songs we wrote thinking that we would play it live. I miss that feeling of singing on stage. It’s like screaming into a pillow or something—you can get away with being more nasty. There’s a whole other part of me missing.”

Wolf Alice previously shared a video for Blue Weekend’s first single, “The Last Man on Earth.” “The Last Man on Earth” was #1 on our Songs of the Week list.

Blue Weekend is the band’s third album and the follow-up to 2017’s Visions of a Life, which won them the coveted Mercury Prize.

The band’s full line-up is Rowsell (vocals, guitar), Joff Oddie (guitar, vocals), Theo Ellis (bass), and Joel Amey (drums, vocals). The band stayed in an Airbnb in Somerset, England and worked on some demos in a converted church. Markus Dravs (Arcade Fire, Björk, Brian Eno, Florence + The Machine) then produced the final album.

Visions of a Life was our Album of the Week, we gave it a rave 9/10 review, and it was also #5 on our Top 100 Albums of 2017 list.

Read our 2017 interview with Wolf Alice on Visions of a Life.

Wolf Alice released their debut album, My Love Is Cool, back in 2015. It made it to #3 on Under the Radar’s Top 100 Albums of 2015 list and landed Rowsell on the cover of our Best of 2015 print issue, in a joint cover with Father John Misty.

Read our Best of 2015 article on Wolf Alice. Also read our earlier 2015 print article on Wolf Alice, as well as our 2015 Pleased to Meet You Spotlight article on Wolf Alice. And read our review of My Love Is Cool here.

Wolf Alice UK & Ireland January 2022 Tour Dates:

05 January - Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow, UK (EXTRA DATE)
07 Jan - Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow, UK (SOLD OUT)
08 January - Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow, UK (SOLD OUT)
09 Jan - O2 City Hall, Newcastle, UK
10 Jan - UEA, Norwich, UK (SOLD OUT)
12 Jan - O2 Apollo, Manchester, UK (SOLD OUT)
13 Jan - O2 Apollo, Manchester, UK (EXTRA DATE)
14 Jan - O2 Academy, Sheffield, UK (SOLD OUT)
15 Jan - Uni Mountford Hall, Liverpool, UK (SOLD OUT)
18 Jan - Eventim Apollo, London, UK (SOLD OUT)
19 Jan - Eventim Apollo, London, UK (EXTRA DATE)
22 Jan - O2 Guildhall, Southampton, UK (SOLD OUT)
23 Jan - De La Warr Pavillion, Bexhill On Sea, UK
24 Jan - Olympia Theatre, Dublin, IRE (EXTRA DATE)
25 Jan - Olympia Theatre, Dublin, IRE (SOLD OUT)
27 Jan - O2 Academy, Birmingham, UK
28 Jan - Plymouth Pavilions, Plymouth, UK
30 Jan - O2 Academy, Bristol, UK (SOLD OUT)
31 Jan - O2 Academy, Bristol, UK (EXTRA DATE)

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