London's Dry Cleaning are making art rock that's smart, sharp, and sorta accessible. For all the risks taken routinely by this four-piece, the yields seem to be just as great, especially on their 4AD label debut, New Long Leg. It's rare that a band can get away with something that's Art-with-a-capital-'A' and still make it so listenable.
"Scratchcard Lanyard", the lead single off this record, is brash and propulsive, while "Unsmart Lady" roars a bit and lurches forward with the kind of choppy hook that propelled many a Pere Ubu track in the old days. Dry Cleaning, massed behind singer Florence Shaw, attack this stuff with a mixture of proggy precision and punky abandon, such that selections such as "Her Hippo" and "Strong Feelings" compel as much as they confuse.
And while Florence Shaw's stream-of-consciousness, everyday routine-style lyrics are likely to generate so much of the attention thrown at this attention-worthy band, the other players here -- Thomas Paul Dowse (guitar), Nicholas Hugh Andrew Buxton (drums), and Lewis Maynard (bass) -- deserve much respect for keeping up with this. Things squall and squirm behind Shaw, the music providing a weird juxtaposition to whatever the hell Florence is ruminating about. Sometimes the jarring is surreal, and the effect a decidedly unique and odd one, but when this all gels, it does so spectacularly, like on "Leafy", a lovely number here on this release.
New Long Leg succeeds thanks to so many of those moments being massed here. A listener hears the words being sung and it's like a litany of the routine, but the music behind those vocals sparks things off, and the whole enterprise works almost in spite of itself. I mean, on paper, it all sounds unbelievably naff and pretentious, but it just kicks when you play the record.
New Long Leg is out on Friday via 4AD.
More details on Dry Cleaning via the band's Facebook page.
[Photo: Steve Gullick]