Debut full-length from Isle of Wight indie pop/post-punk duo lives up to the promise of their singles.
While it might seem that Wet Leg spontaneously appeared a year ago with their viral hit “Chaise Longue,” a couple of rookie musicians who just learned their instruments, they’ve been kicking around in other bands and solo projects for many years. Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers started the Wet Leg project in 2019 with the idea that they’d focus on just being silly. The ability to craft songs that are genuinely funny is no joke. It’s a feat thousands have failed at miserably.
Wet Leg start with a leg up in their roots in spindly, feminist post-punk like The Slits and The Raincoats, who had their own witty observations of mundane acts like grocery shopping (“Fairytale in the Supermarket,” “Shoplifting,”). A touch of sexual frankness like Au Pairs’ “Come Again” and Liz Phair’s “Fuck and Run,” the unstable fragility of early Breeders constantly on the verge of boiling over, and the delicacy of the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s torch ballads. NPR created a playlist of 69 potential influences. That’s probably overreaching. Yes, there’s a lot of bands where humor, pop and post-punk intersect. For some reason, listening to Wet Leg inspired me to reach for The Casual Dots, who’s sole 2004 album on Kill Rock Stars was lost to obscurity (it was briefly on Bandcamp but was since erased from the digital multiverse), despite featuring Christina Billotte of Slant 6/Autoclave and Kathi Wilcox of Bikini Kill. Point being that it’s unlikely Wet Leg heard them or were influenced by them, but I find both enjoyable for similar reasons.
“Chaise Longue” may have been the runaway hit that got things rolling, but every song they’ve released has been pretty great, from the series of clever videos like “Angelica,” “Oh No,” “Too Late Now” and “Wet Dream,” and “Ur Mum.” Videos for half the albums tracks shows some ambition there. I just hope they can take their sudden success and continue making music with as much charm and delight.
During heavy times, an album like this might seem too slight, but the joy brought by it’s lightness is invaluable, and can end up being something that people return to repeatedly for years to come.
