Dry Cleaning (Photo by Steve Gullick)
London-based band Dry Cleaning — Nick Buxton (drums), Tom Dowse (guitar), Lewis Maynard (bass) and Florence Shaw (vocals) — announce their debut album, New Long Leg, out April 2 on 4AD, and present a new single/video, “Strong Feelings.”
Buoyed by the universal acclaim they received for 2019 EPs Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks and Sweet Princess, Dry Cleaning spent more and more of their lives on tour, refining their craft even further. The intensive time they spent together meant they developed a near-psychic knowledge of how to leave the right amount of space for each other in their songs. The resulting New Long Leg is more ambitious and complex, with Florence’s spoken vocals tightly intertwined with the band’s restless instrumentals.
With lyrics preoccupied by themes like dissociation, escapism, daydreaming, complicated feelings of love, anger, revenge, anxiety, the kitchen, lethargy, forgetfulness, and survival, Florence said, “the title is ambiguous; a new long leg could be an expensive present or a growth or a table repair.”
Watch the official music video for “Strong Feelings” by Dry Cleaning on YouTube:
When the coronavirus pandemic hit in March, forcing a swift end to their US tour, Dry Cleaning had their new songs demoed, but had to bide their time before they could enter the studio. They contributed a few new recordings — one being last year’s “Scratchcard Lanyard” — passing a Tascam four-track cassette recorder to one another from the window of Lewis Maynard’s car, cleaning it with antibacterial wipes before recording their parts one by one. Facilitated by the unexpected time apart and the introspection of lockdown, Nick started experimenting with drum machines, Tom with a noisier, more deconstructed guitar sound, Lewis with subtler and more flexible basslines.