‘Thorns’: Decoding the meaning of Wolf Alice’s tender opus
As soon as Wolf Alice played those tender opening notes on ‘Thorns’, the opening song of their latest album, you could instantly tell that The Clearing was set to do something very different and special.
Sonically, it’s every bit as opulent, orchestral, and cinematic a tune as you can imagine for a band making their first comeback in almost four years; the exuberant entrance that everyone has waited with bated breath for. But underneath this veneer of musical grandiose, the lyrics of the song actually tell a very different story – and it’s to a depth and degree that the band have never quite delved to before.
In the first lines, as lead singer Ellie Rowsell sings, “Did it help to take the thorn out/ Telling the whole world you’d been hurt?”, there’s an instant sense of almost condescending degradation. But this is not aimed towards someone else; a hated ex or a tortured friend. Instead, that dagger is piercing through the very centre of one’s own heart, and all the rest of the song’s jagged introspection turns into one giant reckoning of identity politics.
Essentially, ‘Thorns’ is the acute manifestation of what self-indulgence, exploitation, and a slight hint of arrogance result in once you realise you’ve laid yourself bare. This can be applied in a number of situations – perhaps for Roswell and the rest of Wolf Alice, as leaving too much of their hearts and souls on the stage as ascending rockstars, but for everyone else, who hasn’t been swept up in fame’s sweeping tornado, the feeling of doing too much for other people and never seeing much of the return or gratitude for yourself.
This leads to a sharp slice of selfishness as we reach the lines of the chorus: “I must be a narcissist/ God knows that I can’t resist/ To make a song and dance about it,” as the ultimate admission that sometimes, you just can’t help but revel in the attention of being a bit dramatic and, frankly, throwing a strop. Whether it’s fame, relationships, money, family, or anything in between, the thorn in this instance symbolises the ugly parts of one’s personality that we try so hard to conceal.
However, there ultimately comes a point where the dam has to burst and the floodgates open. Those undesirable traits of selfishness, arrogance, and pettiness finally come to light in their worst form, and in a lot of ways, there is nothing you can do to stop them. They need to be exposed to the world in order to show flaws, and then be able to move on afterwards, no matter how uncomfortable that reality is.
Viewing it in this light, it is absolutely clear that ‘Thorns’ is the perfect opening track for The Clearing, as Wolf Alice seek to take on a fresh artistic direction. It’s almost the washing away of everything that has come before now, and all the resentment and ugliness which has inevitably built up alongside that, before being able to start anew. Removing the thorn may be painful or, indeed, reap bad consequences in the short-term, but it’s the ultimate key to reinventing oneself if they stand any chance of letting go of their former self.
