Wet Leg’s self-titled debut album is one that has generated significant expectations over the past few months. Last year’s singles “Chaise Longue” and “Wet Dream” especially created all kinds of hype and led to plenty of media coverage.
But now it’s here, Wet Leg feels somewhat lacking. Indeed, this exciting new noise doesn’t sound particularly new nor especially exciting. Instead, it’s rather insubstantial and it will be interesting to see how much play these tunes are still getting in a couple of months when the media hysteria has calmed down.
Sure, many of Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers’ songs are peppered with entertaining and occasionally laugh out loud lyrics such as, “What makes you think that you’re good enough to think about me when you’re touching yourself?” (from “Wet Dream”) and “Would you like us to assign someone to butter your muffin?” (from “Chaise Longue”) but the music that accompanies them just doesn’t quite do it. In fact, if anything Wet Leg is a homage to the slacker scene of thirty years ago – especially on the opening track “Being in Love” with its quiet-loud-quiet-loud again dynamics.
That isn’t to say that these tunes may not come into their own when they’re played live. But surely, there’s only so many songs about general feelings of indolence and idiot ex-boyfriends that any listener wants to hear when not surrounded by beered up sweaty bodies throwing themselves around to tinnitus-inducing sounds.
Nevertheless, the disenchantment that bleeds from this record could reasonably be said to be a fair reflection of our times – even if it doesn’t mention the various issues that bombard us each day, from the cost of living crisis to the still ongoing Covid pandemic. However, with all the hype Wet Leg have received, we might have expected something more than just a reflection of how dreary life can be.
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