Last year I was looking up some kitschy, mid-century ultra lounge music and stumbled across a reference to a group called Chaise Lounge. So naturally, I went to You Tube looking for something by Chaise Lounge to check out. What I immediately found was a video with a couple young ladies dressed up like Amish dancing around singing about buttering muffins and warm beer. It was interesting, but I had other fish to fry. Fast forward a month or so and one of my co-workers asked me if I had heard Wet Leg. I thought for a second. I asked if that was the Amish girls with the chaise longue song. It was and I had. He was fired up about them, so when I got home I got online and really dug into Wet Leg. At the time, they only had two songs, "Chaise Longue" and "Wet Dream". I was struck by the great songwriting from this weird group with two songs on the internet. The lyrics were smart and funny and confident. It was refreshing to hear a female singer, Rhian Teasdale, so brash about sex and relationships. There is no innuendo or double entrendre. "What are you doing sitting down, you should be horizontal now". "Hey you in the front row. Are you coming backstage after the show?" "I was in your wet dream, driving in my car. What makes you think you're good enough to think about me when you're touching yourself?" "You climb onto the bonnet and you're licking the windscreen. I've never seen anything so obscene. It's enough to make a girl blush".
Over the following months, Wet Leg would periodically release a video for a new single. They were all fantastic. Finally they announced an album for Spring 2022. As Rhian and her bandmate Hester Chambers began doing interviews, they seemed surprised, but cheeky, about the hype. Whenever they would perform "Chaise Longue" they always smiled at each other during the "excuse me...what?" part, like they were getting away with somethng. They are from the Isle of Wight and apparently Wet Leg is a term from riding ferries. Not what I assumed.
I was at the record store the day they got the album in stock. Wet Leg is clever, provocative and the playing is incredible for a new band. My only small gripe is "Chaise Longue" should be the opening track. "Being in Love" is a good song, but not a lead track. "I Don't Wanna Go Out" lifts the guitar riff from "The Man Who Sold the World" to great effect. One of the album highlights is "Angelica". Teasdale juxtaposes "Angelica" and herself at a party. It gives the listener a great sense of the point of view of the album. "Angelica was on her way to the party.She doesn't need to wait for anybody. Knows exactly what she's doin' . I watch as she commands the room. The ambience is overrated at the party. I want to run away before it's even started. I look at my feet, then I look at the door. Can't find my friends, so I just take a bit more".
One of my favorite tracks is "Oh No". It's a fun commentary on modern life. "I went home, all alone, checked my phone, oh no. Oh my god, life is hard, credit card, oh no. You're so woke, diet Coke, I feel gross, oh no. I went home, all alone, I checked my phone and now I'm inside it". The closing track, "Too Late Now", also has a great bit about technology and media. "I don't need a dating app to tell me if I look like crap, to tell me if I'm thin or fat, to tell me should I shave my rat. I don't need no radio, no MTV, no BBC. I just need a bubble bath to set me on a higher path". Sounds like the Wet Leg Manifesto. Peace.
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