Dry Cleaning New Long Leg (Vinyl LP) * * *

Dry Cleaning - the South London group of Nick Buxton (drums), Tom Dowse (guitar), Lewis Maynard (bass) and Florence Shaw (vocals) - release their debut album New Long Leg on 4AD. The 10-track long-player, which includes "Strong Feelings" and "Scratchcard Lanyard," was recorded over two weeks last summer at Rockfield Studios in rural Wales with producer John Parish (PJ Harvey, Aldous Harding). Following on from their thrillingly taut 2019 EPs Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks and Sweet Princess, New Long Leg is more ambitious and complex, with Shaw'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, Shaw says, "the title is ambiguous; a new long leg could be an expensive present or a growth or a table repair."