Dry Cleaning

England's quartet Dry Cleaning (visual artist Florence Shaw, guitarist Tom Dowse, bassist Lewis Maynard and drummer Nick Buxton) debuted with the single Magic of Meghan (2019) and the two six-song EPs Sweet Princess (2019), with Goodnight that recalls the neurotic verve of Devo, and Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks (2019), with the friendlier Dog Proposal (dance beat and ethereal vocalizing), the more cinematic Spoils and especially the haunting Sombre One. Their songs harked back to the new wave of the 1970s/80s, especially Dowse's detuned guitar, but were not sung, just spoken; basically instrumentals on which Shaw declamated her lyrics. New Long Leg (2021) contains Scratchcard Lanyard, which sounds like a Romeo Void's funk-punk ditty Never Say Never of the 1980s, and Unsmart Lady, which is basically a distorted blues-rock a` la Free. Shaw is no Patti Smith: she is calm and pensive where Smith was a hysterical force of nature. That is the problem: after a while it becomes obvious that the band has surrendered one powerful instrument, the human voice, and replaced it with a tedious sound... the human voice.