ALBUM REVIEW: Dry Cleaning – New Long Leg (4AD)
London post-punks Dry Cleaning have become one of the names on everyone’s lips since they announced their arrival with a pair of excellent EPs a couple of years ago.
Guitarist Tom Dowse, drummer Nick Buxton and bassist Lewis Maynard had been friends for years, and were your typical esoteric garage band after forming in 2017.
When they were introduced to Florence Shaw, a visual artist, picture researcher and drawing lecturer, they knew their jigsaw was complete.
Soon she was the frontperson, with her deadpan vocal delivery, dry wit, and linguistic tics the perfect fit for the band’s sound.
Their EPs, Sweet Princess and Boundary Road Snacks And Drinks, both sold out on little more than word of mouth, and they began to turn heads, gaining confidence and honing their craft on stage.
Forced off the road last year by lockdown, they focused on completing their debut album – and what a record it is.
Shaw’s lyrics dissect suddenly living in a world which has shrunk, and her ennui-laden voice distils the feelings of alienation, paranoia and worry, and revelling in everday household things.
It gets straight down to business with Scratchcard Lanyard, the lead single whose insistent bassline and stream of consciousness lyrics make it one of the most compelling earworms of the last few months.
Shaw’s skill lies in the wonderful minutae of her spoken-word delivery, with throwaway asides likes “Would you choose a dentist with a messy back garden like that?/I don’t think so,” (New Long Leg).
She umms, errs, stutters and tosses out memorable lines like she’s having a casual conversation with a friend, such as on Strong Feelings, where she utters “I’ve been thinking about eating that hot dog for hours.”
Post-punk riffs
But as much as her straight-bat style, it’s what’s going on behind and around her that’ll have you smitten. The always-prominent bass is obvious, but there’s understated restraint on the drums, and some super angular post-punk riffing.
Some of the guitar work alone – for example on the woozy, loping Unsmart Lady, which recalls early R.E.M., and the distorted Sonic Youth-like riffs of Her Hippo – make this album essential.
Latest single Strong Feelings (favourite soundbite ‘I just want to tell you I’ve got scabs on my head’) is set to a wonderful chiming riff, while a throbbing dubby bassline powers A.L.C. (‘It’s a memory of a café/That you loved/But you didn’t have anyone to take there’).
Dry Cleaning‘s cohesion as a band means they know intuitively how much space to leave for each other in their songs, and like all the best post-punk outfits (Joy Division, The Fall, PiL) they use just the right amount of repetition, so it doesn’t become boring.
New Long Leg is a record which will throw up a delightful nuance every time you listen to it, and it’s rightfully destined to end up on lots of end-of-year ‘best of’ lists. 8.5/10.
