The second WOLF ALICE album, VISIONS OF A LIFE, was last night announced as the winner of the 2018 Hyundai Mercury Prize for Album of The Year at a ceremony at the Eventim Apollo in London. The band beat competition from the other shortlisted artists Arctic Monkeys, Everything Everything, Everything Is Recorded, Florence & The Machine, Jorja Smith, King Krule, Lily Allen, Nadine Shah, Noel Gallagher, Novelist and Sons of Kemet.
The Mercury Prize judging panel said: “From an incredibly broad list of remarkable music, Wolf Alice emerged as the overall winner due to their ability to deliver an album that combines the epic and intimate in equal measure. It is a journey of a record – with euphoric festival anthems and moments of subtle beauty – it is an album articulated with confidence and adventure. For them, the world awaits”.
Winning the award is the crowning achievement of an already tremendous 12 months for WOLF ALICE. Since VISIONS OF A LIFE was released in September 2017 – debuting at #2 in the UK album chart – the band have toured across the world, including a sold-out headline show at London Alexandra Palace; supported Foo Fighters, Liam Gallagher and Queens of The Stone Age on stadium shows; and played festivals such as NYC Governors Ball, Latitude, Sziget, Lollapalooza and Summer Sonic in Tokyo. The album – which features the songs YUK FOO, BEAUTIFULLY UNCONVENTIONAL, DON’T DELETE THE KISSES, FORMIDABLE COOL and SPACE & TIME – was named in the Top three best albums of 2017 by NME, Q Magazine and Drowned in Sound, and led to a BRIT Award nomination for Best British Group alongside two NME Award nominations.
The album is the follow up to the band’s 2015 debut MY LOVE IS COOL, which also debuted at #2 in the UK album charts and earned a Mercury Prize Album of The Year nomination, as well as nominations for an Ivor Novello Award, a BRIT for Breakthrough Act and a Grammy for Best Rock Performance.
The band play dates in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Malaysia and Hong Kong in September, October and November, before ending the year with a handful of UK and European shows. They recently added a second show at London O2 Brixton Academy after the first one sold out within minutes of going on sale.
DECEMBER
Tue 04 ANTWERP Trix
Thu 06 ROUEN Le 106
Fri 07 NIMES Paloma
Sat 08 STRASBOURG La Laiterie
Tue 11 UTRECHT Tivoli
Wed 12 HEIDELBERG Halle 02
Thu 13 COLOGNE Gebaude 9
Fri 14 DRESDEN Beatpol
Sun 16 BERLIN Columbia Theatre
Tue 18 MANCHESTER O2 Victoria Warehouse
Wed 19 LONDON O2 Brixton Academy
Thu 20 LONDON O2 Brixton Academy
www.wolfalice.co.uk
