Wet Leg (2022)

Wet Leg is the debut studio album by British rock duo Wet Leg, released on 8 April 2022 by Domino. It was promoted by the viral hit "Chaise Longue", followed by the singles "Wet Dream", "Too Late Now", "Oh No", "Angelica", and "Ur Mum". The album received acclaim from music critics, topped the charts in Australia and the United Kingdom, and entered the top ten charts in Belgium, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and New Zealand. It was shortlisted for the 2022 Mercury Prize and it won the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards and nominated for Album of the Year at the 2023 Brit Awards.

Recording

Wet Leg was recorded in April 2021, before the band had even played live, with Speedy Wunderground's Dan Carey acting as main producer.

Promotion

Wet Leg released their debut single "Chaise Longue" on 15 June 2021. The song earned the band acclaim from various magazines after it went viral online. They followed it up with "Wet Dream" on 28 September 2021 with a "surreal" self-directed video. "Wet Dream" was sent to alternative radio in the United States on 19 April 2022.

The duo released the double singles "Too Late Now" and "Oh No" on 29 November 2021, alongside a sci-fi video for the former track and the announcement of the album's release date, tracklist, and tour dates. "Oh No" received a music video 1 February 2022, while "Too Late Now" was sent to adult alternative radio in the United States on 7 February 2022. "Angelica" and "Ur Mum" were released as the fifth and sixth singles on 28 February and 4 April 2022, respectively.

The band toured the album across North America and Europe in 2022.

Composition

Primarily an indie rock, post-punk, alternative rock, Britpop, post-punk revival, indie pop, and punk pop album, Wet Leg takes influence from a variety of other genres, particularly '90s and '00s indie and garage pop.

"Being in Love" is an indie pop, wonky pop, and bubblegum grunge-pop song with post-punk riffs, a synth-rock groove, and art pop influences. "Chaise Longue" is a post-punk and garage punk song wherein Teasdale "intone a series of non sequiturs – from suggestive Mean Girls quotes ('would you like us to assign someone to butter your muffin?') to suggestive allusions to academia" in a deadpan voice. "Angelica" is a psychedelic pop and slacker rock song with "ethereal, dreamy harmonies amid distorted guitars" about "a woman miserably going through the motions at a party". "I Don't Wanna Go Out" is a psychedelic and grunge song that lifts the riff from David Bowie's "The Man Who Sold the World". "Wet Dream" is an indie rock and surf rock song with disco handclaps, "a big, shout-along chorus", "a looping bassline and propulsive beat". Long-time guitarist Joshua Mobaraki co-wrote the song. Teasdale sings about an ex who texts her when she appears in his wet dreams, as well as doing other increasingly ridiculous things like "exposing himself on the side of the road, climbing onto the hood of her car, licking the windshield." The song references the film Buffalo '66 in the line "Baby do you want to come home with me; I've got Buffalo '66 on DVD". "Convincing", the only song Hester Chambers sings lead on, is a psychedelic folk, folk-pop, glam rock, and ethereal song influenced by lounge music that "finds [Chambers] in a rut of sadness, not ready to start digging herself out". "Loving You" is a country pop ballad sung in falsetto that "details the breakdown of a relationship and the painful aftermath of seeing an ex moving on with someone else". "Ur Mum" is a surf rock-inspired pop song that sees Teasdale "calling out a former lover, asking them to forget her", culminating in Teasdale "announcing that she’s been practicing her 'loudest scream,' counting to three before letting out a screech." "Oh No" is a glam rock and glam punk song with "fuzzed-out guitars" about doomscrolling and smartphone anxiety. The folk-tinged "Piece of Shit" "compares a full-of-themselves partner to excrement in the toilet bowl" and incorporates "computer game blips". "Supermarket" is a slacker rock song influenced by first-wave British punk that tells a story about being stoned while shopping. "Too Late Now" is an atmospheric, experimental post-rock and guitar pop song that features "a gratifyingly relatable self-doubt break, when the music drops out to allow Teasdale to document her existential angst as it spreads into the track she is currently performing".