Listen to Dry Cleaning's New Album 'Secret Love'

The South London post-punks known for the spoken word drollery of vocalist Florence Shaw, Dry Cleaning immediately pricked up ears with the Disco Not Disco grooves of recent single 'Hit My Head All Day'. Their new album Secret Love is produced by Welsh songwriter Cate Le Bon, whose own pedigree in avant-pop / art-rock is a perfect foil for Dry Cleaning's poeticism — not so much treading a fine line between darkly funny observations and withering introspection than driving a dodgem car all over the shop (complementary).

There's impressive sonic range on display too. 'Cruise Ship Designer' ("It's a powerful boat for a powerful mind") and 'The Cute Things' assert Dry Cleaning as this generation's The Fall with Bend Sinister-era locked-in riff tangles, the title track stretches limbs into pastoral dream-pop territory, 'Evil Evil Idiot' and 'Rocks' channel doom metal crunch, 'I Need You' radiates Lynchian ambiance, and who can't relate to the line "Enjoyed your gig / Even though I thought there were spiders all over me" in 'My Soul Half Pint'?

The extended dance-punk of 'Hit My Head All Day' turned out to be a bit of a tease, but Secret Love is the work of a group whose adventurous instincts hit the mark with Littler-like precision. Make a wish for local live dates, cop Dry Cleaning's third studio album on vinyl, CD and cassette from good record stores, bounce along with the new video for 'Joy' directed by Cuan Roche, and give it a listen...

"(Secret Love is) sometimes difficult to look at because I can see the hopeless side of how I feel much of the time. There’s humour as a coping mechanism for quite dark thoughts and feelings, but also naivety, a person that hopes for quite sweet, 'nice', things, romance. There’s disillusionment but then always hope." - Florence Shaw

'Secret Love' is out today via 4AD.