Wolf Alice – No Hard Feelings
2021 · Directed by Jordan Hemingway
14K Likes
Best comments
1.“This song got me through my divorce, and I haven't even gotten married yet.”
More comments
- 2.“Wolf Alice saved my marriage. My wife and I were an argument or two away from cutting it off. Long ago, we'd dated at 16 and broken up – a good breakup, no hard feelings – before getting back together at 20. When this came out, I sent it to her on a whim (we were barely talking at that point) and said it captured how I felt when we were young. We listened together, cried together... and THAT was the moment that changed our energy toward each other. Wolf Alice saved my marriage.”
The story
Ellie Rowsell set out to write a cheesy, almost Motown breakup song in the style of the Ronettes. It started life as the intro to a heavier rock song, played so fast it barely lasted. The band liked the intro more than the song, so she built it out, slowed it way down and found it hit harder that way. What's left is almost nothing: a repeated guitar line, a brief patch of synth chords, no bass, no drums. A breakup both people agreed on.
Jordan Hemingway shot it as one piece of a linked series of videos for Blue Weekend, the band's third album, with Rowsell in every one and saturated color throughout. This one is a night at a bus stop. Red light through smoke, yellow streetlight, Rowsell waiting with her ex, then one hug and she's on the bus and gone. The album cover was shot at the same stop.
No Hard Feelings was the third single. Blue Weekend went straight to number one in the UK in June 2021, the band's first chart-topper, and made the Mercury Prize shortlist. A breakup video where nobody yells. Imagine that.
