Dry Cleaning – Secret Love (Indie Apricot vinyl)

Dry Cleaning return with Secret Love, the group’s third studio album, produced by Cate Le Bon. Here, the south London four-piece take their place in rock’s avant garde, catalysing the Thatcherite paranoia of early ’80s post-punk with the dry cut and thrust of Andy Gill, stoner rock, dystopian degradation, playful no wave and pastoral fingerpicking, while Florence’s delivery, meticulously calibrated to her bandmates’ soundscapes, asserts her in a lineage of spoken-word artists stretching from Laurie Anderson to Life Without Buildings’ Sue Tompkins. After interviewing various potential producers, they picked Cate – an esteemed solo artist who has also made albums for Deerhunter, Devendra Banhart, Wilco and Horsegirl – for her unabashed positivity and openness.