Limited edition blue vinyl
Cassette is just Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks but with a bonus track.
After two albums of world-beating indie rock inversion, we're back to the start with this Discogs-baiting (just check those prices on the originals) single disc reissue of Dry Cleaning's first two EPs. You'll likely remember the enthusiasm we displayed on their release five years back and those words still hold true now... Musically speaking, Dry Cleaning had a foot in two different camps here, moving between a new wave flex and a little post-hardcore(ish) grind. Needless to say, the guitar is doing a lot of the work and there's a hell of a rhythm section keeping it all in check. But that was only half the story - the vocals (or should I say lyrics - that is, after all, what we keep coming back for) of Florence Shaw change the game, for Dry Cleaning and a ton of other sprechgesang worshipping copyists that followed in their wake. Sung-spoke in a detached, sardonic manner not a million miles removed from Aidan Moffat sans the emotional desperation, Shaw constructs phrases Dada-like from YouTube comments and banal observations of everyday London single-shite-life in a way that seems to suggest truths bigger than the simple hilarious one-liners they also work as. That ancient rarefied art of joking with the truth! There's endlessly quotable material on display across these 12 tracks, lines I'm still thinking about and rehashing for the entertainment/to the obvious chagrin of others now. Still waiting on that "are we on a date now?' T-shirt to surface, mind you...
