Adding to your own niche, the Dry Cleaning way!
There is, undoubtedly, a ‘Dry Cleaning’ style, so obvious that I feel stupid for pointing it out. Florence Shaw’s “deadpan” spoken-word vocals tell surreal tales of ordinary life whilst an unassuming post-punk backdrop displays some range without stealing focus. This style has always been enough, and the London band has already released two of the most fascinating rock albums of the 2020s in New Long Leg and Stumpwork. But Secret Love is their most fascinating, their most developed album. I’d have thought working with John Parish would’ve been enough to get the band to fully showcase its instrumental usefulness, but Dry Cleaning have now traded their longtime producer for Cate Le Bon, which has seemingly led to the album feeling far more like a full band effort than any other. Guitar work, textures, they’re unignorable now, where they may not have been previously.
Even if Florence’s face is closer to the camera than ever, there is far more focus on instrumentals on Secret Love. Le Bon urged guitarist Tom Dowse to diversify, to use several guitars and produce a more open-ended Dry Cleaning album that has a little something more to offer. This is a great album to check out if you were ever enticed by Dry Cleaning’s core sound but felt you wanted more from it. Check out the scribbling guitar lines of My Soul / Half Pint, somewhat-strummed, somewhat-plucked. Check out the woodsy arpeggios of Let Me Grow and You’ll See the Fruit, guided by basslines that resemble a lighter version of David Bowie’s Sound and Vision. Check out the crushing, deranged interjections of Evil Evil Idiot, buried like broken skulls in soil. Check out the Pinball Wizard-style intro of Blood. For once, we can expect the unexpected beyond the low fantasy of Florence’s lyrics, which, by the way, seem to be far more openly personal than usual.
Le Bon also urged Florence to sing more, at least when the time is right. Her imperfect singing adds to the dynamics of Secret Love (Concealed Drawing of a Boy), its foreign atmospheres. She clicks with the emotional switch-ups in its chords, perhaps for the first time ever. She’s never not been real, but her breaks in surrealism on The Cute Things, to dedicatedly sing “for you”,are particularly real, and precious. The relationship she forms with the utopian synthesisers of I Need You is damn charming, and Joy’s occasional sudden adoption of melody is confident, ear-wormy, and via its role as the album’s finale, prosperous.
I would like to add, one of the more special vocal deliveries belongs to the male backing of Cruise Ship Designer, very Gang of Four-esque. It has always been a little unclear whether we should actually class Dry Cleaning as a post-punk band, but Secret Love’s willingness to go old school post-punk does clear that up, see Rocks’ minimalist, lightning riffing. But little of the album dabbles in reversion, even if it could easily appease the post-punk purist, if such a thing exists. Secret Love is mainly one for people who love and admire growth alongside unexpected experimentation, whilst staying on-brand. “Dry Cleaning is in danger of growing stale. I’m taking it to strange new places!”. Well, not that strange, but ya know.
I think it’s great that Dry Cleaning already has this weird niche of theirs. Secret Love is that same niche with a few extra toppings added, allowing it to feel that bit more special.
Best tracks – Secret Love (Concealed Drawing of a Boy) – Joy.
Rating – 8 out of 10
