ALBUM REVIEW: Wet Leg – Moisturizer (Domino Recording Company)
If their Grammy and Brit-winning self-titled debut catapulted Wet Leg into the big time, reaching No 1 in six countries, Moisturizer is the album which sees them really come of age.
Three years after the first album, the Isle of Wight indie heroines are back with a record which is bigger and better in every way, even if it doesn’t quite contain a Chaise Longue-sized earworm.
Wet Leg still revolves around the core duo of Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers, but their long-time touring band of Ellis Durand (bass), Henry Holmes (drums), and Joshua Mobaraki (guitar, synth), are now full members, and Moisturizer sounds much more cohesive for it.
It’s front-loaded with singles, with three of the first four tracks immediately familiar due to an abundance of airplay, and it’s immediately obvious that this is an album of love songs.
CPR, one of those singles, kicks things off, with Teasdale simpering: “Yeah, I’m in love and you’re to blame/Put your mouth to mine and give me CPR.” Set to a throbbing bassline, it’s a sure-fire indie club floor-filler.
If CPR is the first sign Teasdale’s in love (she’s confirmed she’s in a relationship with a non-binary partner) on Liquidize she confesses: “Love struck me down/The fuck am I doing with you?”
Lead single Catch These Fists is a slice of dance-punk which sees her personal space invaded by a bloke who won’t take no for an answer. Most women will empathise as she sings: “Some guy comes up, says I’m his type/I just threw up in my mouth/When he just tried to ask me out/Yeah, don’t approach me/I just wanna dance with my friends.”
The dreamy Davina McCall returns to the object of her desire, referencing the Big Brother host as she sings: “I’ll be your Davina/I’m coming to get you”. Jennifer’s Body, meanwhile, sees her still struggling to come to terms she’s fallen head over heels, admitting: “From out of nowhere, I just went and told you.”
We return to unwanted male attention on Mangetout, where she urges an ex to “get lost forever”, and we’re back to the present on Pond Song, where she croons: “I’ve never been so deep in love.”
The infatuation continues on the bright and breezy Pokemon, where she declares “you are my favourite human being”, but by the time we get to Pillow Talk, powered by a dirty bassline, it’s turned to lust, with Teasdale purring “every night I fuck my pillow I wish I was fucking you”.
We’re back in more innocent territory in the languid Don’t Speak, “I can say, ‘I love you’ just by looking in your eyes”, and 11:21 is even more laid-back, entering real comedown territory.
The closing U And Me At Home is another relationship song, but this time it seems to involve the one between Teasdale and Chambers, and their journey together so far. “Maybe we could start a band as some kinda joke/’Well, that didn’t quite go to plan,’ I say on the radio”
Moisturizer probably won’t win the accolades that its predecessor did, but it’s a far better album. 8.5/10.
