moisturizer - Wet Leg: Review

Review by Lavender:

Wet Leg is an English post-punk and indie rock outfit that first debuted back in 2022 to pretty enormous praise from critics. Their tongue-in-cheek revitalization of vintage post-punk struck a chord with a lot of people, myself included. I still love songs like their breakout hit "Chaise Lounge," and my personal favorite "Angelica." But when their debut album as a whole came out, I was a lot more mixed on it than most. But even then, I had a lot of excitement for the band's potential. Though it took a little longer than I anticipated, their sophomore album pays off in pretty much every way I was hoping for. 

The singles for this album are among my favorite Wet Leg songs to date, none more than “catch these fists.” It's the perfect combination of the band's punchy energy with their unmistakable humor. Rousing drums on the hook are wrapped around an absolutely irresistible chorus, and their baiting calls for a fight are hilariously dry. The whole song feels lifted straight out of their debut, but with improved execution of nearly every element. 

But if there's one word to describe this album, it's lovesick. In a pretty massive departure from their debut, the main thing being expressed throughout the album is an absolutely paralyzing lust. “CPR” is a great example of how the band can play this for laughs. It serves up eerie verses that eventually give way to an explosive, hooky chorus and bridge all about how insane it feels to be in love. On the other hand, there's “davina mccall” which foregrounds its lovesick thoughts in a more earnest way than I thought Wet Leg were even capable of. That comes alongside a gentler demeanor and dreamy, swaying hook that grew on me a lot over time. 

In fact, when the band goes ultra-sentimental throughout the record, I find it pretty engaging almost every time. “liquidize” keeps up the record's stellar opening run with a sticky cut that's literally about melting into an actual puddle because of how much you love someone. Later on the record, we get “pokemon” a more subdued track with a simple instrumental. It has a dreamier feeling than most Wet Leg efforts and revs it up just enough in the hook to match the lovelorn sentiments. 

Those dreamy vibes are present throughout the album as the band dabbles in indie rock and even light shoegaze occasionally. “jennifer's body” has a distinctive indie rock flare that works perfectly with its genuine flirtyness and playfully girlish poise. “don't speak” is the most Alvvays-sounding song on the album with the dreamy haze and breathy singing. The layers it deploys sound a bit misty at first, but eventually all come together into something really beautiful. Finally, there's the closing track “u and me at home.” It's a simple but absolutely irresistible cut that bounces effortlessly through a quiet-loud-quiet dynamic while still managing to find a way to slowly build up its momentum over time. It's a fantastic way to end the album off. 

If you're looking for deep cuts with the attitude and intensity of the band's debut, they've got that too. “mangetout” shifts the thematic approach of the album towards rejecting an annoying man, which is always a welcome musical theme, but even more so in the snarky hands of Wet Leg. The best moment on the entire record is probably the opening verse of “pillow talk.” It once again deals in overwhelming lust but finds a hilariously feral way to extract it. That all leads to an absolute eruption into a kickass chorus. 

One of the biggest strengths of the record is songwriting. In the softer cuts, the band makes their tracks sway along in dreamy fashion. But on other songs, they build momentum up to capitalize on just the right moment. The tracks I don't care for as much on the album are the ones where that punchy songwriting doesn't translate. “pool song” has one of the least memorable hooks on the record, and to make matters worse, it has this theater kid bridge that's annoying at minimum and flirts with outright bad. “11:21” is a pretty low-impact song that just plods along kind of aimlessly in really slow fashion. It also has a bridge that's basically just repeated mouth noises, and it does nothing to recover any energy for the track. 

So yeah, moisturizer isn't perfect, but I think it's a major improvement. Far from a sophomore slump, I think the band's shift in energy and sentimentality came at the same time as their songwriting becoming much more immediate and irresistible. The result is a record that may not rock quite as hard or as loud, but is far more interesting to dig deep into and listen to again and again and again. 8/10

For more indie, check out my review of Sorry Girls' Dreamwalker