The new record from British confounders Dry Cleaning is upon us. These next few days will see critics such as myself struggle to describe this music adequately. We'll stretch comparisons to the breaking point. Maybe it's just easier to give up and listen to Secret Love than dissect it?
Working with producer Cate Le Bon, there's a lean, supple vibe running through opener "Hit My Head All Day", the first gem here. Singer Florence Shaw jousts with scratches of noise and drone-y keyboards. It's darkly pleasant, and a bit unnerving (but in a good way). Single "Cruise Ship Designer" has a neat Fall-y thing about it, as does "Joy", the album closer and latest single and video. This material all is a bit sinuous, and it wouldn't be far off the mark to say that some of this sounds like a Cate Le Bon record. Still, when guitarist Tom Dowse unleashes some wicked hooks, like on "My Soul Half Pint", this attains a vibe not unlike something from the boom years of post-punk acts like The Raincoats.
Over a string of releases Dry Cleaning have finally found their groove. Emerging with a host of other talking-not-singing bands who pushed out clattering, noisy releases from London, this outfit have managed to ease into their own sound. Secret Love, clearly the most cohesive Dry Cleaning record to date, is also the most enjoyable. The band sounds ready to take a listener by the hand and bring them to a place where genres are blurred, and labels smashed. This is singular stuff and it's pretty darn good too.
Secret Love by Dry Cleaning is out on January 9. Details via 4AD.
[Photo: Dry Cleaning by Max Miechowski]