REVIEW: The Wild Wolves : King Of Clouds (Album)

 King Of Clouds

By The Wild Wolves

https://www.thewildwolves.net/

Full review video here: https://youtu.be/znT3I-olcOY 

The 10 track album, King Of Clouds, released on the 19th October of 2023 by the band The Wild Wolves, is now available to hear on most major streaming platforms now.

The growing discography of The Wild Wolves now includes King Of Clouds, a full length album led by front-man James A Wolff and combines indie pop and indie rock sounds to create a unique blend of the 2 genres. 

First of all, the album art. It is a stunning representation of the album as a whole and encapsulates the style of the music in both its electronic elements and solid guitar riffs with an almost psychedelic image of a woman (almost as if it is up to the listener what they see in the art).

The opening track “Fast Maneuvers” brings the listener instantly to a vocal and guitar intro with hard hitting drums joining in at around 10 seconds. The vocals are well performed and recorded with a unique sound. Throughout the track are elements of electronic or orchestral sounds that give an interesting addition to the genre. 

“New Age Thinking” is the 2nd track on the album. As you can imagine, this has some beautifully produced new age instrumentation including soft pads, deep synth leads and a delicate piano behind and pushing the track forward. The lyric “we’re not so far away” just before the chorus’ is sung in a soft falsetto style which brings a pause to the track before the hard hits of drums and synths burst back in.

“Electric Sky” hops straight in with vocals, drums and guitar. The emotion brought to the song is done with ghostly smooth vocals. The unique voice of the singer definitely should be something to hear for in the future. I can imagine them going far. Electronic synths come in with a deep riff that follows the guitars and fills in the space where vocals once were. 

“A Fast Life That Goes Nowhere” is the 4th track to the album. We open with distorted vocals and guitar followed by a higher synth lead melody. After the build up given to us at the start, we drop back down to a non-distorted vocal line and latin style instrumental part with orchestral elements. This style the morphs into an electronic feel with drums added and vocals placed a little further back in the mix. The vocals are somewhat reminiscent of the “Pablo Honey” - Radiohead era. After the next build up in tension, a deep bass synth takes the place of the instruments joined by guitars and drums. The idea from the song that I got was that you are always aiming to get to a location quickly as to not waste time, but in reality, that location is temporary, stopping amongst all of the noise is a much needed rest from the hustle and bustle of life. As, life is too quick.

The 5th song on the album “The Heart is Always Searching” is a 2000s style indie rock style track with modern elements intertwined within the lyrics. Around 2:40 minutes through the song, we get a chime element sound with the guitars and drums, almost mimicking a rhythm of the heartbeat. This is the longest track on the album, reaching 5:40 in duration.

“Everybody is Wondering”. The 6th track on the album is a track that discusses a relationship and conversation. It has a sort of reminiscent feel to the lyrics like “I’m finally ready” and “everybody’s is wondering but nobody is asking”. These sorts of lyrics make the listener really listen and try to explore the story within the track. We get to a xylophone sound which cuts in-between the 2 main sections of the song. This may be my favourite track from the album (personally). 

Next up is “No Turning Back”. We see first that the intro comes in straight away before picking up speed a little. The vocals bring a tension to the track which grows with more instruments and a heavily distorted guitar joining in. In a small pause between the noise, we hear a gentle soft synth and vocals before we are brought back with drums.

“Are You Even Satisfied” has a glitchy vibe and introduction with fast drums. The track brings you into a fantasy sort of world or dream state almost. Throughout listening to this song, I was drawn in by the swirling synths, deep guitar riff and powerfully smooth vocals. 

“Science and Understanding” opens up with fully formed instrumentation. Soon after, we get the vocals back. The vocals fit perfectly with the synth fills and guitar pattern. This track reminds me of the Dire Straits, “Brothers In Arms” with the gentle vocals which hold so much power in the emotion they carry. In the song also features what sounds like an Erhu instrument which adds an interested twist to the sound with the orchestral element. 

The final track on the King Of Clouds album is “Three Angels”, opening up with the indie rock / pop sound we are now familiar with.This track features the electronic drums we have heard in previous songs but seems to combine elements from a lot of the songs already on this album, almost as a conclusion to the story. An interesting reference in this song is darker themes that are sung beautifully that they no longer seem dark and disorienting. 

The album as a whole is very well produced and has a unique style and sound that can only really be described as wildly brilliant. The vocals bring the album together with the interesting and brilliant instrumentation. The electronic elements are added well to the indie rock / pop sound that they almost create a new genre all together. I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to the album and recommend that you do the same. 

Written by Kole Cook

@Kolecookmusic