After such a singular and pointed debut, Wet Leg waste no time experimenting on their latest album. Whether that means going full pop, merging heavy rock into the mix or just expanding their production, it’s a respectable step forward that might not always sound as immediately theirs at first, but lyrically always wins you back over. While skewering the line between love and self-destruction, “CPR” looses hook after hook in glorious grunge fashion, with Wet Leg’s iconically deranged toned focusing it within their voice. “Davina McCall” presents one of the band’s dreamiest yet tonally melancholic at times tracks to date, with such a beautiful mix of small but timeless melodies, and ear-soothing lyrical choices. Simple yet effective in its precision, “Mangetout” lets its sneering lyrics act as a knife, and explodes in colourful shrapnel as it hurtles towards and hits every chorus, showing its true emotions and cutting loose with the frantic feelings buried under the surface. “Pokemon” sees the band shifting to a bit of 80s pastiche for a neon haze love song, letting themselves get lost to desire and letting someone else steer for a moment.
With a dancing wash of synths and electronic swirls, Tei Shi’s latest single holds nothing back. The bass beats are roaring and Tei Shi cackles and wails to the ether, giving a production aesthetic that can be cold and steamy at the same time. Her Spanish tracks have rarely been delivered so pointedly, which makes the counterpoint of her more hushed lines so satisfying sonically. And this dichotomy seeps into every bit of instrumentation, creating a soft but powerful dynamic across the track. While the singing feels effortless, there’s constantly a new hook or edge to the production taking off to grab your attention, and it begs for endless replays as a result.
Though largely known for her Cornish-language work that feels like the Welsh answer to the modern psych revival, Gwenno Saunders isn’t content being pigeonholed. Blending in jazz hall pop and other touches from her Pipettes days into her modern arrangements, Gwenno shows all her colours, and reminds us just how potent her work can be. The smoky dance pop of “Dancing on Valconoes” recalls a bit of Sandie Shaw with the Smiths energy, while adding vivid lyrical energy and taking you through a more romantic breadth of guitar tones. Weaving the bridge between your dreams and the cruel reality of chasing them, “Utopia” is at times a brooding crooner ballad, and others a lush wonderland that pulls you to the stars. “Y Gath” takes us through new hues of Gwenno’s iconic niche, with psychedelic key lines and guitar tones demented to the point of sorcery, with the ghostly vocals and Cornish bringing a true magic to the record. And as “Hireth” dazzles us with a more string and flute-laden vision of her other world, it seems like Gwenno’s dip back towards more classic pop ideas has simply given her more confidence and excitement to push her kaleidoscopic non-English work further.
Margo Price sings to rejecting the world’s current state and trying to survive by dreaming and perhaps hope on her latest single. The guitars and mix are set to broil and Price has really refined her cries to a fine dagger on this album. The lyrical repetition can feel simple at first, but it quickly comes back around to make you realize you can’t escape Price’s waking nightmare anywhere in the U.S., and then beyond that to any class, any language or life situation. Heck, the line about Japan even suggests leaving North America won’t solve things, or maybe that these issues aren’t simply contained to our continent.
Amidst a sea of singers with a guitar and a dream, Billie Marten finds magic in complex arrangements and deep rhythms that give familiar timbres a new lease on life. There’s a crisp warmness in the bones of “Feeling” that immediately sooths your heart and wraps you like a blanket, and then sprinkles lush hook after hook on you amongst a half dozen rich sonic details. “Crown” has guitars dancing with so much polish they have an almost electronic smoothness to them, while Marten delivers silky notes all over this song. Things slow down and get more washed out on “Clover,” and while it loses some inherent rhythmic and melodic shimmer, it gains an intimate and unpredictable quality that shows a range in her sound we don’t usually get from Marten. The brash kick and loudness on “Swing” is a fun shift in pace that sees Marten blasting out her horns and her giving off a growing sense of confidence that feels emboldening after some of the album’s more downbeat moments.
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