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Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg (debut album)

Started by Retinend, April 02, 2021, 12:52:41 PM

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Retinend

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/4oNy189uvEgnJKNLsWx9Zz



1. Scartchcard Lanyard
2. Unsmart Lady
3. Strong Feelings
4. Leafy
5. Her Hippo
6. New Long Leg
7. John Wick
8. More Big Birds
9. A.L.C.
10. Every Day Carry

I love this band. They sound a lot like Sonic Youth or The Fall. The lead singer is more of a poet than a singer, and likes to collect her lyrics from overheard conversations. They signed with 4AD after making a couple of EPs.

This is their innovative music video for Lanyard Scratchard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PuqlOTyJt0

Pitchfork gives it an 8.6/10: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/dry-cleaning-new-long-leg/

The Mollusk

My dad was harping on about this band but he also loves IDLES and didn't think the new Young Knives album was good so naturally I was skeptical. Will deffo give it a spin soon.

Also "inb4" chveik comes in to tell you how he wishes post-punk was just fuck off and die already ;)

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Should I just chip in with the " singer looks like Her Who Plays Villanelle's Slightly Dowdier Sister " comment here early doors , get it out of the way ?

The band themselves are an excellent combo in a sort of " Flying Lizards opt to make their music a bit less experimental, and decide instead to channel A More Dadaist Sleaford Mods updating the Prinzhorn Dance School sound " way, right up my alley, so they are.

Should fully grown adult's dad's be liking this band, is that a correct state of affairs? Then again, If John Peel were still with us, he'd be all over this band ( while thinking IDLES were a load of old shit).

The Mollusk

Aye, I'm young enough that my old man was a teenage punk in the 70s so he's deffo got some solid tastes (his enormous love for reggae notwithstanding...).

Pauline Walnuts

Quote from: Lisa Jesusandmarychain on April 02, 2021, 01:04:05 PM

Should fully grown adult's dad's be liking this band, is that a correct state of affairs? Then again, If John Peel were still with us, he'd be all over this band ( while thinking IDLES were a load of old shit).

I'd like to think he'd just ignore all this Neo-post-punk and keep playing SOPHIE and GFOTY records. But you never know so you?

Sure he's hate IDLES though.

holyzombiejesus

Quote from: Lisa Jesusandmarychain on April 02, 2021, 01:04:05 PM
Should I just chip in with the " singer looks like Her Who Plays Villanelle's Slightly Dowdier Sister " comment here early doors , get it out of the way ?


Fuck off.

purlieu

This is the kind of band who I really feel like I should hate, almost nothing about them ticks any boxes to me, and yet I'm really enjoying this album. Might even give it the ol' purchase.

holyzombiejesus

Waiting for it to arrive in the post tomorrow. Thought the earlier singles showed promise and really liked ...Meghan but generally felt it got a bit turgid.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain


Janie Jones

Every time this dreary old shit comes on BBC 6Music I want to kill. I understand how people can listen to The Fall or Art Brut or John Cooper Clarke with the Invisible Girls and think, 'Oh I can do that, recite my clever lyrics over some good music, let's form a band.' But what they are missing is that those bands all feature brilliant, talented lyricist vocalists who understand pitch and rhythm and cadence. Dry Cleaning's jaw-tremblingly boring vocalist is just reciting her tedious lyrics over some competent guitar tracks.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

#10
Quote from: OnlyRegisteredSoICanRead on April 02, 2021, 01:49:29 PM
I'd like to think he'd just ignore all this Neo-post-punk and keep playing SOPHIE and GFOTY records. But you never know so you?

Sure he's hate IDLES though.

I think that he night have some reservations, but would ultimately like them and play them, reminding him of a slightly more scrubbed- up Bang Bang Machine sort of thing. He was happy to give airplay to Franz Ferdinand's first album I seem to remember, which surprised me a little.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

I can see Janie Jones' point, I was quite surprised by how conventional them guitar licks were when I first heard Dry Cleaning after only reading about them. Ultimately, though, I'm going to side with my vision of the hypothetical non- dead John Peel, and give them a pass, their music stops just short of being completely bland, and they also remind me a bit of Blue Aeroplanes, another grand old bunch of lads.

Pauline Walnuts

You can get this with a signed print from the evil conglomerate 'Record Store'  https://www.recordstore.co.uk/recordstore/recordstore/New-Long-Leg-Vinyl-Signed-Print/6V5G0000000

15% off with code EASTER15 this bank holiday weekend.

imitationleather


The Mollusk

Yeah nah soz tried to get into this album today and thought it was really boring

Retinend

I'm surprised there are so many naysayers. I guess it's all about the voice.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Quote from: Retinend on April 03, 2021, 06:45:39 AM
I'm surprised there are so many naysayers. I guess it's all about the voice.

You can see the validity of the Flying Lizards,  Sleaford Mods and Blue Aeroplanes references with this point. Maybe Arab Strap, too( I remember having to make a real effort to actually like their stuff after the first album) Hey, there's the possibility of a whole genre of this sort of stuff, isn't there? If Mark E. Smith had decided to let his non- singing wife ( takes after her hubby , then!!!) make entire albums of songs as opposed to the two album tracks he let her do her speaking stuff on, I'm moved to wonder how long that would be appealing to me.
As it is, I'm fine with the ' Cleaning for the time being, maintaining slight reservations for the " Clean Bandit do their very best to rock out" aspect of their actual music. I can imagine this lot being my second favourite band if I were about forty years younger, I'd be writing their name on me school satchel, and everything.

Pauline Walnuts


Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Quote from: OnlyRegisteredSoICanRead on April 03, 2021, 08:22:50 AM
Meanwhile Back in Communist Russia?

That is uncanny! No word of a lie, those Mirth- filled " Morning After Pill" merchants popped into me 'ead,literally two minutes previously and I only came onto this very thread to post about that very combo as another source of  reference! Spooky, eh?

One Guardian commenter on their album review page also claims " Baxter Dury meets Wire", which also sort of works.

shiftwork2

Johnsons The Cleaners was an unhappy destination as a kid.  Forbiddingly adult and shit boring.  Weird machinery out the back, suits wrapped in plastic on mechanised rails, the odd glimpse of a familiar garment that screamed to be rescued from this concentration camp, and the organic industrial solvent smell.  Too many carbon atoms together in a liquid.  This artist has chosen the name well.

As an adult I have made sure I own no items that require a dry clean.

Retinend

I love this bit of Scratchcard Lanyard:

Pat dad on the head
Alright you big loudmouth
And thanks very much for the Twix


Chicory

Quote from: shiftwork2 on April 03, 2021, 10:03:53 AM
Johnsons The Cleaners was an unhappy destination as a kid.  Forbiddingly adult and shit boring.  Weird machinery out the back, suits wrapped in plastic on mechanised rails, the odd glimpse of a familiar garment that screamed to be rescued from this concentration camp, and the organic industrial solvent smell.  Too many carbon atoms together in a liquid.  This artist has chosen the name well.

This is like one of their songs.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

I've been having a right old listen to the ' Cleanings body of work, and am particularly impressed by the brace of eps what have preceded their current long player, the music therein seems to be a bit edgier than their more mature work, but  had just occured to me that within the realms of the aforedonementioned more mature work, Flo and the lads are actually quite prone to sounding like....* shudder* ...The Police! Is this acceptable? I mean Nirvana got away with it on their popular " Nevermind" album from 1991, but should such musical stylings be allowed in this day and age? I'll level with y'awl now, I'm worried.

VelourSpirit

Love the new album. Scratchcard Lanyard and Viking Hair are still my favourite songs of theirs

Retinend

Quote from: Lisa Jesusandmarychain on April 03, 2021, 04:55:09 PM
I've been having a right old listen to the ' Cleanings body of work, and am particularly impressed by the brace of eps what have preceded their current long player, the music therein seems to be a bit edgier than their more mature work, but  had just occured to me that within the realms of the aforedonementioned more mature work, Flo and the lads are actually quite prone to sounding like....* shudder* ...The Police! Is this acceptable? I mean Nirvana got away with it on their popular " Nevermind" album from 1991, but should such musical stylings be allowed in this day and age? I'll level with y'awl now, I'm worried.

Which tracks sound like The Police?


Retinend

haha

to be honest I don't hear Flying Lizards much either

good times

sorry repost from other thread (ta holyzombiejesus)

Had never heard of them before but caught "Strong Feelings" over the weekend on Tom Ravenscroft and instantly loved it.

Since hearing them played to death by 6 over the last few days I'm wondering if I actually like them much at all or just find them a bit basic, possibly even a little annoying. The off kilter vocal inflections which at first which seemed fresh are somewhat getting on my fucking nerves, certainly.

I'm going to listen to the full album today and decide. I feel like it may be a case of a band being less than the sum of it's parts - they tick every box in terms of music I like, angular, stripped down, interesting singer, weird lyrics, but feels like there's potentially something missing.

Alternatively, perhaps it's an example of a band finding a magical, simple sound and doing it beautifully - but once you've heard one song you've heard pretty much every song they'll ever write. A bit like Sleaford Mods.

As a side note, it's a rare occasion where I don't get tired of very quickly songs that I love on first listen. By contrast, my all time faves often usually go over my head on the first few listens.

good times

Quote from: Lisa Jesusandmarychain on April 03, 2021, 04:55:09 PM
I've been having a right old listen to the ' Cleanings body of work, and am particularly impressed by the brace of eps what have preceded their current long player, the music therein seems to be a bit edgier than their more mature work, but  had just occured to me that within the realms of the aforedonementioned more mature work, Flo and the lads are actually quite prone to sounding like....* shudder* ...The Police! Is this acceptable? I mean Nirvana got away with it on their popular " Nevermind" album from 1991, but should such musical stylings be allowed in this day and age? I'll level with y'awl now, I'm worried.

Read this in the voice of 'er out of that Dry Cleaning. Might do that with all C&B posts from here on in.

good times

Quote from: Retinend on April 03, 2021, 06:45:39 AM
I'm surprised there are so many naysayers. I guess it's all about the voice.

Her voice is basically great, it's just a shame she does the same fucking inflection on every tune.

It's the post punk equivalent of when students started doing the upward inflection at the end of every sentence about 15 years ago.