If you don’t mind feeling like you are intruding on another person’s internal monologue there is much to enjoy here. Out on 4AD January 9th.
If you haven’t listened to Dry Cleaning before you might be part of a percentage who will switch off within about 40 seconds of listening to the first track. Their sprechgesang style (dramatic vocalisation between speech and song) will not appeal to everyone. If you get beyond 40 seconds and haven’t switched off, then all sorts of wonderful moments lie within.
Sprechgesang has been around a while as a style. There is some argument over who was the first exponent of it, Bob Dylan’s name is one that gets thrown around here though Arnold Schoenberg’s 1912 opera, Pierrot Lunaire, is probably the real starting point. Lou Reed was one of the truly great exponents of it both with The Velvet Underground and as a solo artist. It has swung back into vogue in recent years in different ways. Black Country, New Road, Yard Act, Sleaford Mods, Big Special and Fontaines D.C. all use it to varying extents.
Dry Cleaning arrived late to musical success. Their first EPs came out in 2018 and 2019 when they were already in their thirties with other careers. The debut album landed in the middle of covid, limiting their chances to tour. Instead, they got straight on with a follow up album. This third album arrives after a longer four-year gap. The creation of the album was shaped by some fortuitous circumstances. They were invited by legendary Chicago rock band Wilco to play their Solid Sound festival. Instead of payment they asked if they could get some time at Wilco’s recording studio, The Loft. While they were there in an early session Cate Le Bon was working on the Wilco album Cousin. A friendship struck up and Cate ended up producing the new album.
Vocalist Florence Shaw works in an unusual style, gathering observations, flashes of emotion and stumbled upon phrases into an almost stream of consciousness outcome. There are some incredible observations and moments, amazing juxtapositions of the true and the absurd. ‘Blood’ has some of the most powerful work with its reaction to exposure to constant atrocity on the news:
“Blood on my skin and hands and nails and in my eyes as well.
I’m crawling.
I’m in an underground bunker with my computer controlled flying bomb.
It’s numbness without end or change.
You’ve shown your arse now.”
The album opens with two great singles. ‘Hit My Head All Day’ instantly sucks you in whilst ‘Cruise Ship Designer’ is an absurdist highlight. The vocal style could have made it all seem samey, but the music carries all kinds of variations. In the vocals, once you really get into it, all sorts of subtle tonal adjustments prove almost as profound as a singer suddenly shouting.
It is a very solid album. Each track has its moments, overall, it feels well designed with a natural progression.
Essential Tracks: ‘Hit My Head All Day,’ ‘Cruise Ship Designer’ and ‘Blood.’
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