One of Britain’s best bands returns with an expansive new album that pushes their songwriting into brand new territory.

Four years ago, Blue Weekend confirmed Wolf Alice as one of the best bands around. Whilst they haven’t exactly been timid in trying different things before, The Clearing shows a growing maturity and confidence in their songwriting skills. There is such a range on offer here it is difficult to know where to start. If it has a defining flavour, then it ultimately feels like a really classic 1970s album. There are old fashioned qualities to the guitar sound that recall a range of different guitar legends. They are known as a rock band, but this isn’t really a rock album. It has a beautiful, unguarded gentleness running through it. After The Ting Ting’s released Home earlier this year it occurred to me that it felt like bands were reclaiming ‘Middle of The Road’ music. For years that term had been such a dismissive slur, but it was often unfair on tuneful, melodic guitar music. This feels like a neat companion piece to Home. An album that says it is good to look backwards for inspiration at times because there is a such a range of beautiful music there.

Opener ‘Thorns’ almost has a low-key ABBA vibe to it, like on their slower numbers. ‘Bloom Baby Bloom remains as eye opening as it did when the single came out. On many of these tracks Ellie Rowsell’s vocal skills feel like they have grown significantly stronger over the last four years. ‘Just Two Girls’ has an incredibly good performance.

I cannot express enough love for ‘White Horses.’ It is the jewel in this crown of an album and confirms drummer Joel Amey as a real secret weapon in their arsenal. This driven and propulsive track has the most incredible harmonies from Rowsell.

They are not afraid to put piano front and centre like on ‘Play It Out.’ Of the unreleased tracks ‘Bread Butter Tea Sugar’ instantly leapt out at me. The rhythm here is like classic ELO.

It isn’t an out and out classic. A couple of tracks drift a little, the chief culprit being ‘Safe in The World.’ It needs high praise though for a band being so willing to try different things and not rest on their laurels. The high points are as good as anything released by any band this year.