Wolf Alice are one of the most feted new English bands. Their second album, Visions Of A Life, was released in 2017 and won the 2018 Mercury Prize.
“Don’t Delete The Kisses” is the second single off that album, and their first song to chart; it just scraped into the U.K. Singles chart at number 100.
The style is both in tune with the album and different from the band’s usual stuff. Just compare the hardcore inspired punk fury of Yuk Foo to this floating, delicate love song.
The music here has been described as shoegazing or dream pop, which is about right. It’s a synth driven song, and although the lead singer has a very powerful voice, she restrains it for the most part here, using a breathy, ethereal whisper. It’s true that her singing is the glue that holds the album together.
It’s unashamedly a love song, which was originally going to have a sad ending, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Which is fair enough.
Both the song and the album got a selection of rave reviews which wax poetic in their praise, and it’s not undeserved.
An intriguing band, definitely one to watch!