OG Quick Take: Dry Cleaning - Secret Love

And an update from 3A6OG HQ on plans and changes in 2026

Happy 2026. I guess? At least it’s not 2025 (or do we miss 2025 and its simpler-in-retrospect times already?) We hope you had good holidays, anyway, and perhaps checked out some of our 2025 Best Of list suggestions, whether to drown out the news, family squabbles, Fantasy Football season-ending loss, etc. It’s been a hell of a year already in the country and world, and we’re only a week in. Looks like we’ll need music by our side throughout 2026 as well.

And we will be there with you, too, guiding you through new albums, shows to check out, and older records to be your comfort food. To that end, we are going to move to a mix of paid and free content, starting with our next post. Our plan for 2026 is:

• 1-2 “old school 6OG” posts per month in our traditional 3-album (or the occasional special list) format; these will continue to be free for everyone

• 2-3 “quick take” posts per month (usually on Fridays) where we dive into a new release; these will be for paid subscribers only (this will be the last free one)

We hope you will sign up for the paid content, as we are very excited about where these quick takes can go. But, either way, we are grateful for your clicking on and reading our posts and hope that you will continue to share with your friends, family, and colleagues (and even those you don’t like so much but just want more stuff to argue about with). We also hope to be adding more writers, so keep your eyes out for even more Old Guys.

Okay, with business taken care of, let’s get to the first new release and quick take of 2026: Dry Cleaning’s Secret Love.

Dry Cleaning formed in the late 2010s in London and burst on the music scene outside the UK in April 2021 with its debut full length New Long Leg, led by the irresistibly hooky and catchy single “Scratchcard Lanyard.”

“New Long Leg” overall felt new and exciting, with vocalist Florence Shaw’s writing and vocals feeling like a warmer, funnier, and more inviting version of the speak-sing approach to post-punk that bands like Protomartyr re-established on the map in the 2010s: a vocalist whose words are endlessly compelling over top a band that, quite simply, rocks. Although the lead guitar of Thomas Paul Dowse typically sits right next to Shaw’s vocals in the mix, almost feeling like a singer accompanying her spoken words, the rhythm section especially churned (also the case with Protomartyr), with the bass line in songs like “Strong Feelings” getting under your skin.

Sure, speak-singing with off-kilter lyrics goes back to Mark E. Smith of the Fall and plenty of others, but Shaw’s approach felt in early 2021 like it was charting a new path, especially with the balance of deadpan delivery and more feminine (or at least less masculine) overtones and impressions.

Then came the rise of Wet Leg, Yard Act, English Teacher, and a host of bands (mainly from Leeds) that, while not the same, were close enough, and they quite quickly seemed to eclipse Dry Cleaning, at least in popular attention and critical acclaim. As such, October 2022’s sophomore album Stumpwork seemed to mostly come and go amid the crowd.

Now Dry Cleaning returns with a new record, and after sitting with the first four singles, I can wholeheartedly say: it’s fine….but, if only based on hints in the last two tracks, I’m optimistic for the future.

Dry Cleaning is, at least from a listener’s perspective (my sense is they probably don’t give a rat’s ass), a band confronting two issues: (1) they’ve really only had a singular sound, so for how long can they keep doing the same thing?; and (2) other bands have now gotten more attention with that sound, and because of those other bands (rather than them), the sound seems a bit played out. So, do they keep going, a la Guided by Voices, and just say “f it; this is who we are and what we do” and keep churning out more of the same, or do they change it up?

For the most part, for now, Dry Cleaning seems to be sticking with the former, but with a sense, though, of what may be different in the future. Although they turned to star indie rock producer Cate Le Bon (currently riding a high for me, having produced the Horsegirl record, my favorite of last year) and recorded in several different studios, the core of the initial singles is, for the most part, the same sound that drove the first two records.

On album opener “Hit My Head All Day,” which clocks in at over 6 minutes, a pop-anthem drum beat rolls into yet-another infectious bass line, and then Shaw’s vocals come in, beginning with the overtly political (“Life, a series of memorials and signals telling us this or that/Telling us this or this, think of that/The objects outside the head control the mind/To arrange them is to control people’s thinking”) and then devolving into the more absurd and abstract, reflecting on childhood memories (“When I was a child I wanted to be a horse/Onions, carrots and celery/Excuse me, what?”)

Now, I haven’t seen it referenced in any review or interview so far that Shaw is either nodding to — or sending up — the most famous (annoying?) line of Wet Leg’s “Chaise Longue,” but I, for one, sure hope it’s the latter this time. That moment of (assumed) brilliance aside, this feels like, well, a very long Dry Cleaning song.

Same for “Cruise Ship Designer,” for the most part. Solid musical core in the rhythm section, strong guitar riff, and a vocal where Shaw inhabits the persona of the song title. There are inklings in this track, though, of Shaw starting to sing (just a bit) and the band coming in, slightly tongue-in-cheek it feels, with an 80’s New Wave-sounding chorus. It’s not enough to turn the song fully into something new, but it’s a glimpse.

“Let Me Grow and You’ll See Fruit” shifts the musical tone from heavier and rhythm-rooted to a lighter, airier melody, beginning instead with a fluttering guitar line and a more hushed drum tone. Over the course of the track, Shaw’s lyrics transition from a more haughty bravado (“I can do anything, say anything/Power/A whole day to spend/No limit, no restriction, no interruption”) to a much more vulnerable and pained place (“I dearly want to make friends/ I yearn for a friend who I can tell my secrets to/Why does the past hurt me so?/The world is laughing at me/I am such a disaster”). It’s a notable shift, and there’s a sax and more orchestral instrumentation at the end to mark it, and we finally hear Shaw start to sing, again, just a bit.

Then comes album closer “Joy,” which is where I get even more excited. The summary in the Apple Music liner notes says that this was the last song written and references, appropriately enough for this review, Guided by Voices and also the Kinks. The music does chime a bit, and there’s a sense that we have moved into a different lane of indie rock. Most notable is that Shaw isn’t just hinting at singing on this track, it’s the hallmark. The chorus repeats often throughout (Joy/We’ll build a cute harmless world/Don’t want one from you, cult), and the lyrics on this song are the least adventurous. And while Shaw will not be mistaken any time soon for Adele as a singer, she doesn’t need to be. Her vocal is a bit hesitant yet somehow still as confident as she seems when she speaks. But it brings a new texture and matches the instrumentation perfectly, especially as an album closer. If the rest of the album sounds more like “Joy,” or if they head that way in the future, then I think we’ll see Dry Cleaning separate itself from the post-punk pack.

In all, if Wet Leg or English Teacher have topped your year-end list in the last couple of years, you’ll definitely want to spend time with this record and see where Dry Cleaning sits for you in the mix of bands with this sound. If, like me, you did not have those bands anywhere close to the top of the list, or on it at all, then Dry Cleaning’s third album is still worth your time as a check-in, and perhaps more intriguingly, a sign of what’s to come.

Plus, you still need something new and musical to distract you from the news, and there ain’t much else out there.

(Finally, yes, you did notice that all the videos feature a different guy, whether band members or friends, dancing with a simple background behind, real or not. This was a deliberate choice, and it does make them all worth watching at least once, especially the guitar player in the video for “Joy”.) (Brad)