WOLF Alice, one of the biggest breakthrough independent bands of recent years, have announced a new album, Visions Of A Life, and a run of shows worldwide, including a date on Tyneside in the autumn.

A first taste of the new record, Yuk Foo, was premiered as Annie Mac’s Hottest Record in the World on BBC Radio 1, and is available to stream and download now via Spotify, iTunes or Apple Music.

Annie Mac played Wolf Alice’s song Giant Peach - from their Gold-certified debut LP My Love Is Cool - as her first track on her first broadcast when she took over the reigns of Radio 1’s prestigious weekday evening show in March 2015, and this evening repeated the feat for her return to the station. As comebacks go, a gauntlet is hurled by the exhilarating rage-rush of Yuk Foo, briskly laying waste to all it sees in a little over two minutes. “You bore me, you bore me to death,” screams singer and guitarist Ellie Rowsell: “Deplore me? No I don't give a shit.”

Who the “you” in question is up to us. “We wanted to make it open to interpretation, so that anyone who was frustrated at something could have it as their anthem,” says Ellie. She herself was inspired by “being sick and fed up of certain expectations... for me a lot of it is about being a young woman. Even the shit, everyday wolf-whistle thing. As I get older, I feel like ‘Why have I always put up with that?’ When I sing that kind of song, it’s everything that I want to do when that happens.”

Wolf Alice are Ellie Rowsell (vocals, guitar), Joff Oddie (guitar, vocals), Theo Ellis (bass) and Joel Amey (drums, vocals). The band’s 2015 debut album My Love Is Cool hit No 2 in the UK charts in June of that year, and No 12 on the Billboard alternative albums chart in the US. They were nominated for the Mercury prize, Ivor Novello Award, a Brit for Breakthrough Act and Grammy for Best Rock Performance, and took an NME Award for Best Live Band. They crisscrossed the UK, the US, Australia, Japan and Europe on the mother of all two-year tours. Last year Ellie and Theo set up the Bands For Refugees movement, after the horrors of Europe’s migrant crisis and the lack of compassion shown in many quarters shocked them into action.

Visions Of A Life is fundamentally a personal album, and one of great growth for Wolf Alice. From opener Heavenward - a cloudburst of shoegazey guitar and vaulting vocals - through to the epic, eight-minute closing title track, it’s packed with surprises for those who think they know what Wolf Alice’s shtick is.

Visions Of A Life will be released on September 29 via Dirty Hit.

Wolf Alice, 02 Academy, Newcastle. November 13. Tickets from gigst.rs/WolfAlice