You never expect to find yourself bopping around the kitchen to a song about a fictional cruise ship designer, but that’s where Dry Cleaning are taking us in 2026. The South London four-piece are back with their third record, Secret Love, enlisting the help of Cate Le Bon on production for a fresh take on their trademark post-punk sprechgesang and sharp observations.
Secret Love moves smoothly between a darker, more intense sound to softer, intimate moments. Blood is one of the most striking and perhaps the most transparent in its lyrics. Deconstructing the modern inevitability of witnessing atrocities half a world away on our screens, singer Florence Shaw laments our own sense of complicity as she sings, “Blood on my skin and hands and nails, and in my eyes as well / I try to see”. Evil Evil Idiot continues this darker tone with ominous instrumentation and lyrics about raw meat, carcinogens and chemicals.
