Wolf Alice - Yuk Foo

Swearing in music is such a controversial issue. How does the censorship that media imposes on songs relates to freedom of speech? Is it the role of government and industries to tell us what is appropriate to listen and what is not? If coursing in music has had a long and complicated evolution, female musicians who swear had it much more complicated.

If Dead Kennedys or Eminem give it a go at cursing, eyes are rolled but not as much as when Nina Simone used "goddam" to position herself for the civil rights that black groups were denied or when Lily Allen says "fuck you" to denounce fascist bigots. Women who swear are constantly judged and condemned as "un-lady like" because of the socially constructed narrative that says that women shouldn't get angry.

But they do, and Ellie Roswell penned a track that is her anger in full blast and unapologetic. Yuk Foo is much more aggressive than any other track in Wolf Alice's 2015 debut, that was full of very fine indie rock tracks, but in this new single, they inflame their sound with punk and grunge. Roswell wrote this track to destroy expectations on herself, either as a woman and as a musician, it's confrontative and shocking, not only for the confessions she make ("I want to fuck all the people I meet, fuck my friends and all the people in the street") but also for the raw and dirty riffs that go with it. It also offers a rich performance from Roswell, who knows when to shout in your face, but also when to approach a more calm state (she builds tension when she whispers "I feel it coming, is it exciting?), she knows how to apply different shades to give texture through her voice (reminds us a bit of Karen O) and don't end up in a regurgitated anger that most hardcore band keep for an entire length of a track (and some time, an entire album, or worse, an entire career).

It's visceral and crude, but also fun and irreverent, the kind of slapping in the face that brit rock needed since the entire scene is suffering a softening that is drawing it closer to Ed Sheeran than to the amazing rock and punk acts that it has had in its rich musical history. This kind of visceral music could be cathartic, and Wolf Alice knows how to mixing it in an album where the rest of the tracks don't necessarily follow that same line. With Visions of Life, Wolf Alice is a promising band that could probably follow the steps of Arctic Monkeys and Foals as an indie band that can also be massive.