Lyrically Speaking: The lament of time and maturity in Wolf Alice ‘Play It Out’
“I’ve been trying to figure out a lot of things, like getting older,” Wolf Alice frontwoman Ellie Rowsell recently said. The comment came linked to their latest tune, ‘Just Two Girls’. But it’s hard not to connect it with the entirety of The Clearing and what makes it such a great listen.
There aren’t many bands from our youth that we still talk about today. Loads of them kind of fell behind, whether because of the quality of their music or because they were only appealing to a certain period of time. Wolf Alice could have been lumped in the same pile, but The Clearing proved the one thing we’ve found to be true over the years – that when artists lean into uncertainties and insecurities, the art is better. More real.
And with The Clearing, Rowsell wasn’t shying away from everything she’s learned over the years. Before, Rowsell came across as a girl-next-door type, a soft, ethereal voice that guided songs about love, loss, heartache and finding your way as a young woman in music and in life. Now, she faces challenges with her appearance, the direction of their sound, and the kicker – ageing.
And with that maturity comes a certain vulnerability when handling expectations. Like how concepts of motherhood and age, and women in music, are one of the biggest talking points. In ‘Play It Out’, this comes in the form of lamentation over whether being childless equates to worthiness of a legacy. “When my body can no longer make a mother of me,” Rowsell sings, “Will I change my notion of time? / And will you change your mind? / On me and I’ll be something to leave behind.”
But there’s also a subtle sense of empowerment just by simply talking about it, even though there’s so much she doesn’t yet know, or know how to feel: “I will rule the world / Rock the cradle with a babeless hand / Just watch me build castles in the hourglass sand / Mind still hear screaming in the hallway from the empty pram.”
But here, it isn’t necessarily about committing to one path or another, or so it seems. Instead, Rowsell seems to be asking for understanding and patience, and trust in that whatever she’s meant to do, or whatever she wants to do, she’ll be taking her own route. “I wanna age with excitement / Feel my world expand / Go grey and feel delighted / Don’t just look sexy on a man / Just let me play it out.”
That last line especially points to a beckon for taking in the nuances not only of her situation but of countless women’s. It’s not about playing by some kind of archaic rules or appeasing simply because she’s not a man. It’s not even about explaining her choices; it’s the practice of navigating her own world in a way that makes sense to her, even if it doesn’t to the listener.
Except here, as a woman, it does. Because age doesn’t mean things begin to have an expiration date, nor does it mean waiting life out until you’ve found your calling, or worse – your person. It means maturing with the clarity that happiness and contentment start with loving and trusting yourself. With being confident in your own journey, even if it’s unconventional.
And the best part is that things can change. Views can change, anything can happen – it’s the not knowing that comes to the front, here. And the not knowing that makes the song so vulnerable yet so openly brave. As she sings: “When I get there / A place in time where life brings me elsewhere / Will I change my notion of self? / In sickness and good health / I promise to love and cherish myself.”
