Remi Wolf Has A Lot of Big Ideas on Her Sprightly, Scattered Sophomore Album
With her sonically rich, aptly titled second record, Wolf continues to take risks and push the boundaries of her kaleidoscopic style to exciting, if slightly scattered lengths.

If tie-dye had a sound, it would sound just like Remi Wolf. The Los Angeles-based indie pop artist makes music that moves and feels like a psychedelic swirl of colors. Her bright, groovy instrumentals explode with personality and playfulness, backing impressionistic lyrics laced with witty, unexpected turns of phrase and impressive vocals that oscillate from howling to lilting. Wolf herself invokes the prismatic, vibe-heavy quality of her songwriting and production on “Cinderella,” the breezy jam that opens her sophomore record Big Ideas. “I can be yellow, I can rearrange by the afternoon / And I’m purple, so quick when I switch it up,” she sings over jubilant horns and Donna Summer-esque whistles like she’s leading a summer city parade. The song’s music video further spells out how Wolf sees her ever-changing range of emotions reflected through the color spectrum, with the tint of her outfit and leg warmers changing every few beats.
These sudden, mercurial shifts in mood characterize the rest of Big Ideas, which builds upon the high-energy bedroom pop of Wolf’s 2021 debut Juno by channeling ‘70s funk, ‘80s stadium rock, and ‘90s ska and giving each era a sunny, stoner-friendly Southern Californian spin. But although it’s much more polished and down-to-earth than Juno, Big Ideas is just as scattered, its title accurately describing Wolf’s interest in exploring every nook and cranny in her mental Rolodex and scooping out whatever shiny, attractive gem she finds. Such a maximalist approach is more feature than bug, of course, resulting in an album whose indulgent tendencies mostly supersede an overall lack of cohesion and focus. Think of listening to it like eating dessert on an empty stomach before dinner: It’ll satisfy any sweet-tooth cravings you may have, but it may leave your tummy rumbling for something a little more filling.
That Big Ideas registers as more style over substance could be a consequence of Wolf developing much of this record during breaks while touring and amid the dissolution of a relationship. Creating anything in an intense state of personal and professional transition is always a bit of a risk, especially when there’s such limited time and energy to process our experiences, let alone turn them into art. Still, Wolf and her co-producer Solomonphonic’s exploratory, intriguing artistic choices are compelling enough to offset some of the album’s unevenness, running a fun gamut of influences from Sugar Ray to Tame Impala to Kimya Dawson.