Photo credit: Hanna Katrina
London-based post-punkers Dry Cleaning are set to release their eagerly awaited debut EP ‘Sweet Princess’ on 16 August via It’s OK. The release follows support slots with Bodega and headline shows that drew the attention of many major players within the music industry.
‘Goodnight’ opens the EP with Sports Team-meets-Indoor Pets-style indie-pop hooks before Florence Shaw’s spoken-word vocals come in. She talks about losing a 17-year-old feline friend and this evolves into a wave of nostalgia: ‘When this song plays, I can remember the good old days when I was a kid and how we played together with my cat’; ‘Everything was so easy, everyone was alive. They looked so happy I miss my grandmother’. She also looks at other bittersweet moments of life: ‘Imagine being able to stack the odds of everlasting love in your favour’ and ‘you stole my childhood CDs, you fuck’. ‘New Job’ follows with post-punk drums and an Art Brut-esque sense of surreal humor as Florence recalls a date that went wrong in vivid fashion: ‘You were listening to me talk about making art and you seemed pretty interested and then we both went to the toilet and you were leaving’. She then heads to a gathering (‘No mate, it’s not that kind of party. We’ve go to get to know each other’) before delivering snippets of small talk.
‘Magic of Meghan’ is an ode to Meghan Markle that rallies against all the bullshit, misogyny and racism she receives from the media, especially in the way they describe her as ‘Just what England needs. You’re going to change us’ and how her fashion choices send messages: ‘Earrrings to empower women, bag that helps charity, jeans made in Wales, a cruelty-free coat’. The guitarwork recalls Savages as Florence observes on how ‘this beautiful woman fell into my life’. ‘Traditional Fish’ follows with broody and atmospheric stop-start riffs and Florence reading out a list of things she sees on a journey to and from a supermarket (‘Christmas Tree recycling point’; ‘bakers only past this point’). It then asks the question ‘Who’s the pride of Britain?’
‘Phone Scam’ starts with Florence’s observation of how ‘she doesn’t have the right to scream at me in my face’ before then saying how ‘she screamed and screamed ‘I don’t wanna touch it” and repeats of ‘she said I was a horrible cunt’, while the final ‘Conversation’ is packed with new wave-style guitars and Florence’s detached delivery of ‘ring ring, ring ring, ring ring ‘hello” before she discusses being followed by porn accounts on Instagram and then making an actual impression of a phone ring before signing off with ‘That would be nice. See you then. Byeee!’
Dry Cleaning play the following tour dates:
08.08 – Prince Albert, Brighton
09.08 – Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
10.08 – O2 Academy, Leicester *
16.08 – Green Man Festival, Breacon Beacons
21.08 – Shacklewell Arms, London
22.08 – Hare & Hounds, Birmingham
23.08 – YES (Basement), Manchester
24.08 – Future Yard Festival, Birkinhead
19.10 – Simple Things Festival, Bristol
20.10 – SWN Festival, Cardiff
* with Bodega