After spending most of 2010s building up a rabid following, UK alt-rockers Wolf Alice haven’t released an album since 2017’s Visions Of A Life, which won their country’s coveted Mercury Prize the following year. They’ll return in June with their third LP, Blue Weekend, and are sharing its lead single today.

“The Last Man On Earth” is a haunted piano ballad that explodes into something grander halfway through.
“You’ve really missed a trick when it comes to love/ Always seeking what you, but what you do ain’t enough,” Ellie Rowsell half-whispers. “You’d like a light to shine on you.” The atmospherics are stirring, and they build tension masterfully for the grand finale. Jordan Hemingway’s music video further inflames the drama of it all with some stunning black-and-white portraiture.

Rowsell elaborates on the song in a statement:

It’s about the arrogance of humans. I’d just read Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle and I had written the line “Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from god” in my notes. But then I thought: “Uh, your peculiar travel suggestion isn’t a dancing lesson from god, it’s just a travel suggestion! Why does everything need to mean something more?”

Watch the video for “The Last Man On Earth” below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “The Beach”
02 “Delicious Things”
03 “Lipstick On The Glass”
04 “Smile”
05 “Safe From Heartbreak (if you never fall in love)”
06 “How Can I Make It OK?”
07 “Play The Greatest Hits”
08 “Feeling Myself”
09 “The Last Man On Earth”
10 “No Hard Feelings”
11 “The Beach II”

Blue Weekend is out 6/11 on Dirty Hit/RCA.