On the primary tune of their self-titled debut album, Moist Leg had been feeling uninspired, crushed down, and zoned out, equating all of it to the identical oddly fascinating state: ‘Being in Love’. Three years later, the Isle of Wright five-piece – helmed by Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers – open their sophomore album by reevaluating: being in love isn’t a factor you “kinda like.” It’s an emergency. It makes you sound ravenous, maniacal, foolish, and melodramatic, all adjectives that describe moisturizer at the same time as Moist Leg keep their deadpan humour and off-beat aesthetic. But the report, as soon as once more produced by Dan Carey, softens into and soaks up its pleasures and contradictions, the way in which it may seem fantastical even because the sobering actuality kicks in. What ‘Being in Love’ describes as “some type of fucked up journey” is simply “pleased comatose,” which isn’t a foul slogan for moisturizer. Apply gently; it simply would possibly do you good.
1. CPR
You anticipate the serpentine riffs, the chunky bass, the driving drums, however listening to that Swarmatron synth (an instrument producer Dan Carey has used cannily sufficient to land him within the Wikipedia web page for it) blasting like a siren all around the refrain? That’s a reasonably daring sign that Moist Leg have discovered themselves in surprising territory. Rhian Teasdale will proclaim that she’s deep in love in a while the album, however on this earlier stage, it comes off each infatuated and slyly accusatory: “I’m in love/ And also you’re guilty.” Although she describes getting misplaced in somebody’s eyes as only a tendency, she’s not shy concerning the depth of the state of affairs, which blurs love into suicide. The experience’s solely simply begun.
2. liquidize
Uncertainty creeps in between the shadows of moisturizer’s two assured singles, with the band leaning into dream-pop to seize the haze of questioning should you’re definitely worth the love that’s being directed proper at you. Teasdale is simply as convincing on this melancholy mode, chopping by regardless of the silliness of phrases like “marshmallow worm.” (Complimentary.)
3. catch these fists
Whereas it nonetheless holds up as an glorious first single, recapturing the magic of Moist Leg’s earliest outings, it’s extra of a tonal outlier on the album. It’s battle-ready in a means that straight contrasts ‘liquidize’, juxtaposing the chorus “Lovestruck/ Me down” with the way in which snarkier “Man down/ Degree up.” Typically, an previous transfer is all that you must decide your self again up.
4. davina mccall
If ‘liquidize’ wasn’t sufficient, these fast to guage moisturizer as an imitation of its predecessor are supplied ‘davina mccall’, the place the singer relaxes into the euphoria of a very good relationship. Love works in references: “Sipping on Ribena/ Fuck like Coca-Cola.” When Shakira’s ‘At any time when, Wherever’ comes on, you’ll be able to relate with out making a fuss, simply laying again and smiling. It’s the twangiest Moist Leg have sounded, and whereas now not allergic to the saccharine nature of it, Teasdale evades finishing the melody when singing “you’re just like the solar,” but means all of it the identical. Like an extension of its temper, the tune will get somewhat lazy on the finish, however you simply know there’ll be one other switch-up.
5. jennifer’s physique
Getting deeper into the wormhole, the band punches up the dreaminess of ‘liquidize’ for what virtually resembles a shoegaze monitor. Moist Leg don’t sound like trend-chasers, however the association feels oddly flat, and there’s barely a phrase sung that doesn’t go with out saying (“Can’t you see I’m obsessive about you?”). It’s fittingly hypnotic – the interaction between Teasdale and Chambers significantly enchanting – however you would like it’d stretch itself out for an even bigger influence.
6. mangetout
The group is again in shrugging, strutting high kind. “I gave you magic beans,” Teasdale sings, nailing the pronunciation of the title earlier than making its double entendre clear: “Get misplaced without end!” It’s stuffed with biting remarks, the type that will get beneath your pores and skin even should you want Google to even get it. I’ll prevent a search: RNLI is the Royal Nationwide Lifeboat Establishment. Not that there’s any saving grace for any such man.
7. pokemon
“I don’t wanna take it sluggish,” Teasdale affirms, and whereas the tune isn’t slow-paced, its swish craving for escape – adorned with heavenly synths and all – does mellow issues out.
8. pond tune
Extra firmly balanced than ‘CPR’, much less insecure than ‘liquidize’, and catchier than ‘jennifer’s physique’, ‘pond tune’ hits us with one other slew of references that didn’t make it onto ‘davina mccall’. However first, we get the setup of a narrative: “I used to be a small city lady/ Tryna make it large.” The beloved is now not like the solar, and this small city lady? Nicely, she’s the flower. It’s all nicely and good till the story creeps again into view: “You’re hoping I received’t disappear/ Once we cross that ocean.” The lady’s made it large, and it’s tougher to make guarantees.
9. pillow speak
“You’re so candy even if you’re bitter,” Teasdale sang romantically on the earlier tune, which turns ripe with stress on the raunchy ‘pillow speak’: “You’re candy/ You’re bitter.” Carey leans into his gothiest tendencies as a producer, whereas Ellis Durand and Henry Holmes’ rhythm part blows the tune open. “To sleep/ To dream/ To fuck/ To really feel.” Is it Shakespeare or pillow speak? Love or suicide? Is that the Swarmatron I hear?
10. don’t communicate
With Chambers taking up lead vocals and a candy guitar solo from Mobaraki, Moist Leg soften up on ‘don’t communicate’, a greater try at a shoegazey monitor. There’s no Princess Bride references right here; simply “You’re the rock to my roll.” There’s a darkness hidden within the vulnerability, however she asks her lover to “burden the dangerous.” As an entire, moisturizer makes it sound attainable.
11. 11:21
Moist Leg had slower cuts, however no ballad fairly like ‘11:21’. There’s irony within the band timestamping a tune about time passing by but feeling “the identical means about you because the day we first met,” a sense that persists even because the metaphors begin to crumble. Mobaraki’s keys and Chambers on the tin whistle assist evoke a nocturnal ambiance, over which Teasdale delivers her most mesmerizing efficiency, stretching the phrases “met” and “tonight” like they are surely tantamount to without end.
12. u and me at dwelling
There aren’t sufficient anthems concerning the candy reduction of returning dwelling with a liked one, fortunately comatosing. moisturizer’s nearer delivers on that entrance but additionally scans as a communal sigh from a band that’s been touring continuous for the previous couple of years, but in some way discover time to put in writing a full album of songs seemingly disconnected from life on the highway – till ‘u and me at dwelling’, that’s. Once more, not a lot of a narrative right here, but the plot thickens. “Possibly we may begin a band/ As some kinda joke,” Teasdale reminisces, as she has, certainly, in a number of interviews. “Now we been stretched the world over/ Over land and sea/ And there’s this large elastic band that pulls you again to me.” Meta wordplay is Moist Leg’s bread and butter, however you wouldn’t anticipate it to be fairly so shifting.
