Secret Love, the third album from London outfit Dry Cleaning, finally sees the light of day this Friday. The group have released a fourth and final single, ‘Joy’, following predecessors ‘Hit My Head All Day’, ‘Cruise Ship Designer’ and ‘Let Me Grow and You’ll See The Fruit’.
With lyrics initially pieced together from adverts in Virginia Tech University’s History of Food and Drink archive, ‘Joy’ serves as a compassionate coach to those in desperate need of positivity and kindness. Like Stumpwork swansong ‘Icebergs’, it’s an optimistic sign-off for Secret Love with the parting words, “Don’t give up on being sweet.”
“Recently I’ve felt pessimistic about the world. The influence of what they call “the manosphere”, the genocide against Palestinians continuing despite huge protests, the rise of the racist Reform party in the UK, the promotion of AI in art and music. I wanted to try and stoke my drive to stay positive and spread softness and compassion. The wishes in the song have a naive quality.” – Florence Shaw
‘Joy’ is accompanied by BULLYACHE-choreographed visualiser starring the band’s very own Tom Dowse He explains, “We were looking to get away from the longer form, narrative and impressionistic confines of a typical music video and give ourselves, friends and fans a way to respond to the music in a more expressive way that feels personal.
We’ve seen the vastly different ways people behave at our shows – pogoing singalongs, full wig-outs, lone figures inhabiting the sound in their own private universe. With that in mind, we asked Bullyache to design a set of moves to each song on Secret Love as a starting point for ourselves and others to mimic or interpret them in a fun and idiosyncratic way, regardless of technical ability.”
Dry Cleaning – ‘Joy’
Dry Cleaning – ‘Joy’
Single Artwork by Erica Eyres
Secret Love is the finest expression yet of the profound friendships that created Dry Cleaning, between frontperson Florence Shaw, guitarist Tom Dowse, drummer Nick Buxton and bassist Lewis Maynard. Here, the south London four-piece take their place in rock’s avant garde, catalysing the Reaganite paranoia of early 80s US punk and hardcore with the dry strut of Keith Richards, stoner rock, dystopian degradation, playful no wave and pastoral fingerpicking, while Florence’s delivery, meticulously calibrated to her bandmates’ soundscapes, asserts her in a lineage of spoken-word artists stretching from Laurie Anderson to Life Without Buildings’ Sue Tompkins.
The follow-up to 2021’s New Long Leg and 2022’s Stumpwork started life in Peckham rehearsal spaces, all four members writing, playing and responding to each other in the room: in Dry Cleaning, music and lyrics form an inseparable, generative whole. Secret Love evolved through affirming sessions at Jeff Tweedy’s Chicago studio the Loft and explosive ones with Gilla Band’s Alan Duggan and Daniel Fox at Sonic Studios in Dublin, taking advantage of the sensory particulars of each space, and finally with Cate Le Bon at Black Box in the Loire Valley. After interviewing various potential producers, they picked Cate – an esteemed solo artist who has also made albums for Deerhunter, Devendra Banhart, Wilco and Horsegirl – for her unabashed positivity and openness. “Being in a room with them and hearing that vitality and life force that exists between them all, it’s such a unique expression,” she says.
Secret Love is released this Friday, 9 January and will be available digitally, on CD, cassette, black vinyl, limited edition Apricot vinyl (4AD store & indie retail) and Pearl/Arctic vinyl (Rough Trade exclusive). A limited number of signed photo prints will also be available via the 4AD store and selected indie stores. To pre-order the album, and for more details head HERE.
Album artwork by Erica Eyres
Dry Cleaning – Secret Love
4AD0868
Formats: Standard black LP, Limited Apricot LP, Limited Pearl/Arctic LP, Limited JCD & CD
Tracklist
A3. My Soul / Half Pint
A4. Secret Love (Concealed in a Drawing of a Boy)
A5. Let Me Grow and You’ll See the Fruit
B6. Blood
B7. Evil Evil Idiot
B8. Rocks
B9. The Cute Things
B10. I Need You
B11. Joy
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