Label: 4AD
Released: 2nd April 2021
If life in the last twelve months has been a fairly even split of household mundanity and never-ending worries, then the very long-awaited debut from Dry Cleaning provides the perfect soundtrack. A record that exists in the gaps of modern life that most other bands skip over, ‘New Long Leg’ sticks its head in your kitchen cupboards, worries about Brexit, waits for the bins to get collected, feels paranoid, gets its leg pissed on in the big Sainsbury’s. Modern life is delightful!
Brighter minds than ours could spend years dissecting each track, the wandering nature of Florence Shaw’s wry lyrics leaving you feeling at times like you’ve been dropped into her actual stream of consciousness where you only hear or understand half a conversation but still get asked whether you still want oven chips and never mind because the conversation has moved on now anyway. The way that her voice and delivery changes pace and plays with rhythm is almost hypnotic, giving the sense that she and the rest of the band are dancing around each other in some elaborate movement that only they can see.
There are hints of 80s US college rock throughout, shades of early R.E.M. rubbing shoulders alongside a host of influences that never feel less than uniquely their own. By the time the band really flex their muscles on the closing ‘Every Day Carry’, a seven-minute-plus track that feels destined to be a climactic mindblower when live shows do finally return, they have easily cemented their place as one of the most fascinating bands out there.
