On the primary track 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 whilst 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 will possibly seem fantastical even because the sobering actuality kicks in. What ‘Being in Love’ describes as “some type of fucked up journey” is simply “joyful comatose,” which isn’t a foul slogan for moisturizer. Apply gently; it simply may 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 everywhere in the refrain? That’s a fairly 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 accountable.” Although she describes getting misplaced in somebody’s eyes as only a tendency, she’s not shy concerning the depth of the scenario, which blurs love into suicide. The trip’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 if you happen to’re definitely worth the love that’s being directed proper at you. Teasdale is simply as convincing on this melancholy mode, reducing by means of regardless of the silliness of phrases like “marshmallow worm.” (Complimentary.)
3. catch these fists
Whereas it nonetheless holds up as a wonderful 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 instantly contrasts ‘liquidize’, juxtaposing the chorus “Lovestruck/ Me down” with the way in which snarkier “Man down/ Stage up.” Typically, an previous transfer is all it is advisable 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 provided ‘davina mccall’, the place the singer relaxes into the euphoria of a great 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 track will get a bit of 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 nearly resembles a shoegaze observe. 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 want it’d stretch itself out for a much bigger influence.
6. mangetout
The group is again in shrugging, strutting high type. “I gave you magic beans,” Teasdale sings, nailing the pronunciation of the title earlier than making its double entendre clear: “Get misplaced perpetually!” It’s filled with biting remarks, the type that will get underneath your pores and skin even if you happen to 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 track isn’t slow-paced, its sleek craving for escape – adorned with heavenly synths and all – does mellow issues out.
8. pond track
Extra firmly balanced than ‘CPR’, much less insecure than ‘liquidize’, and catchier than ‘jennifer’s physique’, ‘pond track’ 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 woman/ Tryna make it huge.” The beloved is now not like the solar, and this small city woman? Properly, 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 woman’s made it huge, and it’s more durable to make guarantees.
9. pillow discuss
“You’re so candy even while you’re bitter,” Teasdale sang romantically on the earlier track, which turns ripe with stress on the raunchy ‘pillow discuss’: “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 track open. “To sleep/ To dream/ To fuck/ To really feel.” Is it Shakespeare or pillow discuss? Love or suicide? Is that the Swarmatron I hear?
10. don’t converse
With Chambers taking up lead vocals and a candy guitar solo from Mobaraki, Moist Leg soften up on ‘don’t converse’, a greater try at a shoegazey observe. 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 unhealthy.” 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 track 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 environment, over which Teasdale delivers her most mesmerizing efficiency, stretching the phrases “met” and “tonight” like they are surely tantamount to perpetually.
12. u and me at house
There aren’t sufficient anthems concerning the candy aid of returning house 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 few years, but in some way discover time to put in writing a full album of songs seemingly disconnected from life on the street – till ‘u and me at house’, that’s. Once more, not a lot of a narrative right here, but the plot thickens. “Perhaps we might 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 huge 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.
