Restlessness can also be a refuge.
Dry Cleaning He doesn't shout: he observes. Since their appearance at the beginning of the decade, the London band has established itself as one of the most unique proposals of contemporary British post punk, thanks to a sound that moves between contained tension, uncomfortable humor and a narrative close to the spoken word. With Secret Lovetheir third studio album, the group not only reaffirms its identity, but expands it into more ambitious, dense and emotionally complex compositions.
Three years after Stumpwork, Dry Cleaning 2026 begins with an album that feels in a permanent state of alert. Secret Love It does not seek immediate impact or an easy hook: it filters out slowly, like a persistent murmur that ends up occupying all the space. A fundamental part of this atmosphere lies in the production of Cate LeBonwho allows the sound to be expansive and precise without diluting the band's edgy character. Everything is in its place, but nothing rests completely.
The album opens with “Hit My Head All Day”a piece that sets the tone from the beginning: hypnotic bass lines, a cadence close to new wave and a Florence Shaw who seems to think out loud, trapped in rhythmic loops that border on the obsessive. Post punk continues to be the axis, but now it coexists with more melodic gestures and less rigid structures, giving way to an album that feels more open without losing its edge.
Throughout the album, the guitars of Tom Dowse They play with that constant duality between containment and explosion. On topics like “My Soul / Half Pint”tension builds up leisurely, while in “Secret Love (Concealed In The Drawing Of A Boy)” The distortion is retracted to make room for synthesizers that soften the blow without subtracting its intensity. Even when the band allows itself to explore lighter terrain—as in “Let Me Grow And You'll See The Fruit”with folk overtones—the feeling of restlessness never completely disappears: it remains in the background, observing.
The lyrics are one of the most disturbing pillars of the album. Dry Cleaning find beauty again in the mundane and the uncomfortable. “Blood” crosses pessimism and surrealism in images that bother more than they explain; “Evil Evil Idiot” he embraces his own malice with guitars that hold the chorus like a barely contained threat; “Rocks” takes post punk to its rawest form, while “The Cute Things” introduce a breath of air indie pop which doesn't break the spell, it just makes it momentarily more bearable.
Towards closing, Secret Love finds a more vulnerable point of introspection. “I Need You” approaches avant-indie from supplication, as a moment of emotional exposition after chaos, and “Joy” It functions as an unexpectedly luminous ending: not as a definitive answer, but as a truce after going through doubt, irony and estrangement.
With his third full-length, Dry Cleaning He does not deliver an album of certainties, but rather one that feels comfortable inhabiting contradiction. Secret Love confirms that the band continues to expand, refining its language and consolidating itself as one of the most interesting voices on the current British alternative scene. An album that does not seek to console, but rather to accompany from discomfort.
Stay tuned for Indie Rocks! for more details.
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