A demo that sat shelved for over a year finally found its complete form with the help of a violin. Wolf Alice has released "Hit The Sky," the third and final track from The Clearing: B Sides, bringing the B-sides collection to a close.
"Hit The Sky" is a driving folk-rock track featuring violin from James Gavin, with Julia Cumming returning on backing vocals—she previously appeared alongside Bria Salmena on the B-sides collection's cover of The Roches' "Hammond Song." The track started life as a demo completed at Seven Sisters during The Clearing sessions, before the band returned to finish it a year later.
Frontwoman Ellie Rowsell said of the track: "'Hit The Sky' is a demo we did at Seven Sisters that we revisited over a year later, adding James Gavin on violin and Julia Cumming on backing vocals. It's about encouraging someone you love to be themselves, because you can see how much they shine."
This isn't actually the first time "Hit The Sky" has surfaced—Wolf Alice already debuted it live back in March alongside "Gospel Oak" at a Teenage Cancer Trust benefit show at Royal Albert Hall. On the origins of the B-sides collection as a whole, Rowsell said these are "a few songs we wrote while making The Clearing that didn't end up making the final album, but that we love, and we're happy to give them a home and let people hear them."
The Clearing: B Sides is now available digitally, with a 7-inch vinyl release set for Friday, August 21. The Clearing marked Wolf Alice's second UK Number One album and earned the band their fourth Mercury Prize nomination—a fourth consecutive year of nods—along with a BRIT Award. The band will next join Olivia Rodrigo's "Unraveled Tour" as a special guest, kicking off the North American leg.
