Blue Weekend by Wolf Alice

Blue Weekend, Wolf Alice's third album, came out on Dirty Hit on 4 June 2021, four years after the Mercury-winning Visions of a Life, and it gave the London band its first UK number one. The four of them sound utterly sure of themselves: Ellie Rowsell's voice moving from a hush to a howl, Joff Oddie's guitars shimmering one minute and scorching the next, Theo Ellis and Joel Amey shifting gears underneath.

The four singles that went out ahead of it show its different faces: "The Last Man on Earth" a stately slow-builder, "Smile" a snarling rocker, "No Hard Feelings" and "How Can I Make It OK?" the dreamier, softer side. Critics lined up to call it the band's best work, it made the 2021 Mercury Prize shortlist, and it turned out to be their last album for Dirty Hit before the move to Columbia.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.