Wet Leg

Album review

Listening to the (deservedly) much-hyped debut album from Wet Leg, you might wonder if front women Hester Chambers and Rhian Teasdale come from another planet—one that doesn't know or understand the conventions of Western pop songs. That's how quirky and just plain weird their songwriting and performing can be. There is no aim to be pretty, and it's refreshing.  The finest example of this is the band's killer first single, "Chaise Longue," with Chambers disaffectedly—almost as if reading from a user's manual—reciting blush-inducing double entendres (including the Mean Girls quote "Is your muffin buttered? Would you like us to assign someone to butter your muffin?") over drums that tick like a time bomb, until it all erupts in a tilt-a-whirl dizzy chorus. Chambers in particular tends to wear milk-maid dresses and hausfrau kerchiefs, which, coupled with her odd singing style—sometimes a murmur ("Loving You"), sometimes an exaggeration (the way she seesaws the word "hi-e-e-e-e-de" on the Britpop-esque "Supermarket"—makes the sexy, playful lyrics all the more intriguing. On the post-punk "Wet Dream," powered by lecherous bass and detailing the come-on texts of an ex, "It's enough to make a girl blush" becomes the chant "It's enough," veering effortlessly from flirtatious to weary. "Angelica" folds in new wave guitars that sound like honking taxis, a nursery rhyme tinkle and shoegaze wash to create an anthem of boredom. "But I don't wanna follow you on the 'gram/ I don't wanna listen to your band/ I don't know why I haven't left yet/ Don't want none of this," Chambers sings, exhibiting the opposite of party FOMO. It's a similar anti-social theme on the Breeders-like "I Don't Wanna Go Out": "I have to find a way out/ Of the plans that I made in the past … Control, alt, delete." Teasdale, the straight woman behind "Chaise Longue"'s call-and-response "What?" plays it creamy-dreamy louche on "Convincing," while the chorus chimes in like a clowder of mewling kittens. "Being in Love" brings surf-rock ooohs  and nervous energy, while "Piece of Shit"—so pretty with its Luna-like  guitar—is heartbreaking. "Want me to cry? ... like I might die?" Chambers sings to someone who made her feel she's fucking up at life."Like a piece of shit, you either sink or float." It all ends with spacey, grand "Too Late Now," the bass looming like a gentle giant as Chambers rushes her spoken lyrics: "I don't need no radio/ No MTV, no BBC/ I just need a bubble bath to set me on a higher path." Right on. © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz