ALBUM REVIEW: Dry Cleaning – Secret Love

4AD

Released: 09.01.26

Dry Cleaning’s third full-length, produced by Cate Le Bon, is their most joyfully effortless and focused, both musically and thematically. For a group who have always balanced the playful with the existential astutely Florence Shaw’s lyrics are as sharp and succinct as they have ever been: “The objects outside the head control the mind / to arrange them is to control people’s thinking” she intones on Hit My Head All Day. It summates the record quite sweetly, as the thematic threads of the record deal with the chaos beyond our control and the stoic acceptance of futility and indifference. For a band defined by an impressionistic aloofness it’s also their most emotive, the title track may be the most emotionally direct song they’ve ever written: breathtakingly articulate with zero obfuscation.

Le Bon’s production and guidance brings the best out of the band here too; the record has a density and weirdness that exceeds their previous records, and sonic attention to detail which is rewarded by repeated listens. I Need You explores breathy, intimate sonic textures. The band took a more egalitarian approach in composing the record and this is apparent: there’s a more pronounced synchronicity between themes and sonic palettes. Whether this is the best Dry Cleaning record remains to be seen, as is a matter of personal taste to some degree, but what I can say with some conviction is that its is the most Dry Cleaning record Dry Cleaning have released to date.