Written by Spike Sidor

NEW LONG LEG

Dry Cleaning New Long Leg Review Album Cover

DRY CLEANING

2021 POST-PUNK/ART PUNK

New Long Leg is the debut album by London post-punk newcomers Dry Cleaning. This is the latest entry in the now consistent stream of post-punk releases that have blessed what feels like the past decade. Dry Cleaning are quite different from most of what’s floating around these days, both to their benefit and detriment, for me, it’s mostly the latter. The overall sound is sparse for the genre, this is to give room for the main feature, the vocals. A soft femme spoken word type delivery and a lyrical style that feels like poetic free word association. It’s a bit moody broody, a steady flow of mild monotone. The instrumentals match this aesthetic, they are much too blasé, no attempt is made by these half-hearted jams to grab your attention, when combined with the vocals you get the lazy river of artsy post-punk. It’s easy to imagine a show, dimly lit, a dark purple spotlight circling the stage, an audience of literature MAs clad in black, some tapping their feet, a few bobbing their heads, most statues that miraculously briefly gain sentience to sip a drink.

It’s easy to view this as slam poetry that coincidentally has a rock band playing for atmosphere. I’ve been dodging the hard topic here, New Long Leg is boring. It’s a real snoozer, nearly bone dry of memorability. Still, it would be wrong to not point the few moments that pulled me from the post-punk haze. I love the verse on John Wick about how much worse The Antiques Roadshow has got over the years, it’s one of those rare ultra specific references that heightens the intimacy when you are in the know. The section about platform shoes on the title track is amusing and one of those thoughts you are surprise has escaped you for so long,

Are thеre some kind of revеrse platforms, shoes that make you go 
into the ground more, make you reach a lower level?
Nevermind

After this, my mind has to search, having to look too deeply for intrigue is a very poor sign. I won’t say don’t listen to it though, if the low-key poetic riffing sounds appealing to you, give it a go, but for me I won’t be coming back to this and I’m not left with much hope that their next material will be more engaging. 

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