Dry Cleaning Share Final Secret Love Single “Joy”

Dry Cleaning release ‘Joy,’ the final single/video from their new album, Secret Love, out this Friday via 4AD. ‘Joy’ follows last month’s “sprawling spoken-word flourish,” (Stereogum) ‘Let Me Grow and You’ll See The Fruit,’ and previous singles, ‘Cruise Ship Designer’ and ‘Hit My Head All Day.’

With lyrics initially pieced together from advertisements in Virginia Tech University’s History of Food and Drink archive, ‘Joy’ serves as a compassionate coach to those in desperate need of positivity and kindness. Like Stumpwork swansong ‘Icebergs,’ it’s an optimistic sign-off for Secret Love with the parting words, “Don’t give up on being sweet.”

Lyricist Florence Shaw comments, “Recently I feel very pessimistic about the world. The influence of what they call “the manosphere”, the genocide in Palestine continuing despite huge protests, the rise of the racist Reform party in the UK, the spread of AI in art and music amongst other regressive things. I wanted to stoke my drive to stay positive and promote softness, joy and compassion.”

‘Joy’ is accompanied by BULLYACHE-choreographed visualiser starring the band’s very own Tom Dowse, who explains, “We were looking to get away from the longer form, narrative and impressionistic confines of a typical music video and give ourselves, friends and fans a way to respond to the music in a more expressive way that feels personal.

We’ve seen the vastly different ways people behave at our shows – pogoing singalongs, full wig-outs, lone figures inhabiting the sound in their own private universe. With that in mind, asked Bullyache to design a set of moves to each song on Secret Love as a starting point for ourselves and others to mimic or interpret them in a fun and idiosyncratic way, regardless of technical ability.”

Secret Love is the finest expression yet of the profound friendships between frontperson Florence Shaw, guitarist Tom Dowse, drummer Nick Buxton and bassist Lewis Maynard. Here, the south London four-piece take their place in rock’s avant garde, catalysing the Reaganite paranoia of early 80s US punk and hardcore with the dry strut of Keith Richards, stoner rock, dystopian degradation, playful no wave and pastoral fingerpicking, while Florence’s delivery, meticulously calibrated to her bandmates’ soundscapes, asserts her in a lineage of spoken-word artists stretching from Laurie Anderson to Life Without Buildings’ Sue Tompkins.

Secret Love began life in Peckham rehearsal spaces, all four members writing, playing and responding to each other in the room: in Dry Cleaning, music and lyrics form an inseparable, generative whole. Secret Love evolved through affirming sessions at Jeff Tweedy’s Chicago studio, The Loft, and explosive ones with Gilla Band’s Alan Duggan and Daniel Fox at Sonic Studios in Dublin, taking advantage of the sonic particulars of each space, and finally, with Cate Le Bon at Black Box in the Loire Valley. After interviewing various potential producers, they picked Cate—an esteemed solo artist who has also produced albums for Deerhunter, Devendra Banhart, Wilco and Horsegirl—for her unabashed positivity and openness. “Being in a room with them and hearing that vitality and life force that exists between them all, it’s such a unique expression,” Le Bon says.

Secret Love will be available digitally, on CD, cassette, black vinyl, limited edition Apricot vinyl (4AD store & indie retail) and Pearl/Arctic vinyl (Rough Trade exclusive). An exclusive run of white labels of Secret Love will be available to order for 48 hours only from today via the 4AD store, and a small quantity of JCD’s will be available exclusively on Bandcamp. A limited number of signed photo prints will also be available via 4AD and select indie stores.

Pre-order / Pre-save Secret Love: https://drycleaning.ffm.to/secretlove

Dry Cleaning – Secret Love

1. Hit My Head All Day
2. Cruise Ship Designer
3. My Soul / Half Pint
4. Secret Love (Concealed in a Drawing of a Boy)
5. Let Me Grow and You’ll See the Fruit
6. Blood
7. Evil Evil Idiot
8. Rocks
9. The Cute Things
10. I Need You
11. Joy