‘Man It Feels Like Space Again’: the overlooked album that Ellie Rowsell has always adored
After the seismic events of this year, it’s easy to look at Wolf Alice, and particularly frontwoman Ellie Rowsell, as newfound rock superstars.
But as the fans who have been in this for the long haul know well by now, this has been a long and intrepid journey of sonic evolution and artistic development not just for Rowsell but the band as a whole. They were in a very different place just a few years ago. You could have never imagined an album like The Clearing at that point.
Over the years, Wolf Alice have taken on a number of different mantles and ruses, but if you are able to cast your mind back a decade ago, you probably wouldn’t recognise them as the band they are now. At the time, having just released their debut album My Love is Cool, their focus was on absorbing as much of the music scene around them as they possibly could.
In some ways, that has never changed, but it seems that nowadays the band are far more sure-footed than they ever were, not stopping to take much notice of the thoughts of those around them as much anymore. However, it’s worth remembering how much of an untapped gem they were in those early days, with one album leading Rowsell in particular to see the sonic light.
Yet, as an underrated pick, Man It Feels Like Space Again, the 2015 studio album by Pond, might not be the most obvious choice of muse that people expect. “This is the last album that I remember listening to that I really loved in all of its entirety,” Rowsell explained. “A sign of a good album is when your favourite song is always changing.”
She continued: “If you have a short attention span, this is such a good album because there’s so many different dynamics to it, different moods. It jumps really quickly from a really upbeat, disco-y kind of tune to something that’s almost an Americana or country song. That [diversity] is important to me in an album.”
Taking this in the context of everything that she and her band have achieved in the time that has passed since, you can see where Rowsell has lifted countless points of inspiration, particularly when it comes to her most recent musical efforts.
Recalling how she first saw Pond play Man It Feels Like Space Again live at a festival in Australia, she added: “What I always love about Pond is that they’re always switching up their singers, and their drummer was singing this song. It constantly blows my mind when I watch singing drummers.”
That seems an innocuous enough statement to make, but consider the song ‘White Horses’ from The Clearing. There you will find, for the first time ever, Wolf Alice’s drummer, Joel Amey, singing on the track. It’s impossible to say whether one single album from a decade ago was a direct influence on this, but it looks like those golden nuggets of inspiration have always been ruminating in her psyche somewhere.
Of course, a decade is a long time to spend working on anything or honing one’s craft. It’s easy to take positions for granted and forget where one comes from. But in the case of Wolf Alice, that never seems to have happened. Indeed, they look as if they’re still making good on the ambitions they set out on all those years ago. Just imagine what dreams they’ll come up with next.
