Following the critical landslide of their third studio album, Secret Love, South London’s Dry Cleaning have returned with a striking new single, ‘Sliced by a Fingernail.’ The track arrives as the band, comprised of vocalist Florence Shaw, guitarist Tom Dowse, drummer Nick Buxton, and bassist Lewis Maynard, prepares for an extensive international tour kicking off this month. Accompanied by “laundry-noir” visuals from the creative duo BULLYACHE, the release serves as a victory lap for a group recently hailed by Uncut as the most important British guitar band of their generation.
The new single finds the band leaning into a rich, complex soundscape that melds the jagged edges of early 80s US hardcore with motorik grooves and stoner-rock undertones. Over this hypnotic backdrop, Shaw delivers her signature abstract lyricism, this time exploring the claustrophobia of unwanted visibility and the desperate desire for anonymity. To commemorate the release, the band has also launched a one-off limited-edition t-shirt, available exclusively through their official website, further bridging the gap between their surrealist musical output and distinct visual aesthetic.
Of the single, Shaw states,
“A lot of attention makes them feel sliced up. So they fantasise about being hidden inside a huge flower bud and about being anonymous in a crowd at night. The image of a brown mark from a finger nail pressed into a petal inspired some of the lyrics. I thought about peony buds not opening and then browning, and their tightness. The lyrics were also inspired by illustrator Jooyoung Kim’s picture book about a dog who has a long body, called ‘Welcome to My Life’.”
Secret Love continues to dominate the cultural conversation, having already secured five-star reviews and “Album of the Month” honours from The Guardian, MOJO, and The Sunday Times. Critics have described the record as a “surrealist masterpiece,” a sentiment echoed in the precision and poetic tension of this latest offering. As they head back on the road, Dry Cleaning remain at the absolute vanguard of the post-punk landscape, proving that their evolution is as relentless as their rhythm section.
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