Lazy Comparisons And The Music Press

One thing that bugs me about the music press is how eager journalists are to categorise and pigeon-hole new bands by comparing their music to that of other musicians. An example that rears its head again and again is the comparison between Elastica and Wolf Alice.

I'm a big fan of both bands, but I've never understood the music press's obsession with linking them together. It was the release of Wolf Alice's Fluffy back in 2013 when the association between the bands first appeared. Since then its been hard to trawl through any reviews or articles about Wolf Alice without the comparison being regurgitated by the author, and is often at the expense of mentioning what is unique and individual about Wolf Alice's music. At a push I will admit that parts of Moaning Lisa Smile sound like a heavier version of Car Song but the constant comparison seems to me to be based on little more than the fact both bands are female fronted.

Even in its review of Wolf Alice's excellent genre-dodging My Love Is Cool, the NME lazily described the album's revamped version of Fluffy as a 'stampeding goth Elastica' two whole years after the comparison was first thrown up.  One of Wolf Alice's strengths is the large range of genres they take inspiration from and make their own. You only need to listen to My Love Is Cool and the diversity it has to offer to realise that the 'connection' (sorry) to the post-punk of Elastica is seriously obsolete.