Dry Cleaning Turn Nonsense into Truth on the Fantastic New Long Leg
The British quartet’s debut album is levels funnier, wryer and more melodic than their previous work

British quartet Dry Cleaning extract the profound from the mundane and the meaningful from the nonsensical. On “Viking Hair” from the band’s 2019 EP Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks, frontperson Florence Shaw’s everyday sexual fantasies stood in for the arbitrary guidelines determining acceptable and shameful desires; as she surreally rattled off “traditional fish bar, chicken and ribs, bus pass” and more on “Traditional Fish” from the band’s other 2019 EP, Sweet Princess, she scorned the very idea of commerce. And she did it all in a bone-dry, comical sing-speak set to rollicking, if not straightforward, post-punk courtesy of guitarist Tom Dowse, bassist Lewis Maynard and drummer Nick Buxton.
New Long Leg, Dry Cleaning’s debut album (and first release for 4AD), is all of that and none of that. Shaw’s semi-accidental revelations about the ridiculousness of being alive when we live in a society are sharper than ever, and her voice newly takes the tone of a psychic waking up from a 70-year nap. Dowse, Maynard and Buxton have massively upped their game, too: The EPs’ post-punk foundation remains, but atop it come stomping glam riffs, dream-pop arpeggios and razor-sharp melodies that loosen Dry Cleaning’s prior tension without entirely taming the mania.
The most obvious comparison for Dry Cleaning is one-album greats Life Without Buildings (who have recently enjoyed surprise TikTok success). Both bands make a distinct style of melodically and rhythmically complex rock; both bands’ frontpeople prefer speaking to singing and near-accidentally found their way into their bands from other artistic disciplines. Even this comparison, though, sells Dry Cleaning short; few bands have melded fiery chords with Cure-like jangle as seamlessly as on New Long Leg’s “Her Hippo.” As Shaw intones, “Got my shorts on in preparation for the hot / These idiots in trousers who don’t know what they’re doing / Feel like I’m going to send you 20 texts / Let me know when you’re inside the plane,” she at once raises an eyebrow at the flabbergasting yet unending tradition of men wearing pants in scorched-earth weather and reminds us all that airports remain dreadful. We’ve all been there, but few render societal stupor and then roll their eyes at it as deftly as Shaw.