In defense of Wet Leg
The first single and song that made them go viral, albeit more organically than some might realize, was “Chaise Lounge” and the quality of the track itself does warrant the success. There is a drum opening on this that is a sound equivalent of a chameleon, every single time a new single would be released and added to the streaming waterfall it would lead into this all the same and that’s still true now that the record is out in full. The song is also very easy to get into with its simple basslines, danceable main riff and lyrical content that isn’t about anything but still manages to do some interesting things. The “excuse me? What?” bit made me turn my head on first listen and kind of made me look twice at this band as a whole. The main hook of the track just gets so stuck in your head. I can see, off the basis of this song alone, why the band blew up so fast. If you heard this song at a festival, you’d be able to sing along on the second chorus and you’d have a blast doing it, their song just works.
“Too Late Now,” was another single and closes the record out. The whole first section sounds so fleeting with its percussion that echoes out and riff that sort of comes and goes with a fizzle. Then we bring that intro back around, more complete this time, and the track from there on is just that introductory section but played sharply with no sense of fading away. Even during the bridge of the song it sounds like a bass is being tuned almost to give signal to the fact that we’re introducing a more complete thought than before. Narratively in passing I always thought this song was trying to talk about a difficult relationship with dating in general or just this need to relax but I sort of get it a bit more now I think. What I think being discussed here is this intense stress that can be thrown upon a band by being launched into success as quickly as Wet Leg were;
“Now everything is going wrong. I think I changed my mind again, I’m not sure if this is a song I don’t even know what I’m saying [...] I don’t think this is the sort of life I saw myself living.”
This overwhelming sense of fast fame and this need to churn out music to fill up show slots is really reflected here lyrically and even sonically with the ever-increasing pace and the screams in the background.
“Oh No” is another look into that state and the two were appropriately released together. The song was quite literally written to fill time at shows and the video shows numerous crude posts written about the band on social media. The line;
“I went home all alone, I checked my phone and now I’m inside it.”
Speaks volumes here. The song itself is about the act of doom scrolling and that’s really demonstrated. Lines like;
“You’re so woke, diet coke. I feel gross.”
Was a line I sort of laughed off but I think makes sense. There have been plenty of times where I’m scrolling through my feed and see something that while I may agree with, is clearly begging for brownie points and it annoys you in the moment but you take a sip of your drink and just sort of forget about it until you inevitably get sucked in again. When the line “I’m scrolling” is repeated and followed by a scream that’s what it feels like. You can’t stop but it’s driving you crazy to keep going. Now imagine the genre’s scene you’re a part of has you at the spotlight of it all and all those stressful opinions are about you, not just someone you only know through a screen.
The next single, “Angelica” was something a bit different. There is a really interesting backing vocal dynamic in this one where there will be either another voice or a sound effect to support whatever's being said.
“Angelica was on her way to the party, she didn’t need to wait for anybody”
Followed by that “nuh-uh!” not only supports that lyric, it sounds like a moment from a party movie. I have to compliment the ray gun sound effect too. It almost sounds like it’s not even really a laser but a voice just saying “pew” and distorted enough to sound realistic. There is a lot of auto-tune in the track aside from there, there’s not even a true chorus, just a bridge with auto-tuned vocals and a pretty heavy instrumental. All of which is a nice break from the dance-punk like post-choruses of the whole record outside of this moment.
The final single, “Ur Mum,” dropped on the same week of the record and I’m glad I skipped this one. Not that I wasn’t excited for new material but that close to the record I wanted to have as fresh an experience as I could. With this one, as much as I find it to be a highlight, I don’t find it brings much new to the table overall. Similar to “Chaise Lounge” it has a chorus and hook that’s a lot of fun to sing along to and while you may not learn it based on one listen when you do know it it’s so easy to get lost in it. I also like how the main instrumental comes back as a vocal melody in the post-chorus. It’s a moment similar to things like Nirvana would do on their records where the chorus vocal melody comes back as guitar solos. Taking influential liberties is something that Wet Leg doesn’t shy away from doing, there’s a sonic reference to “Jump” by Van Halen here as well. I also quite enjoy the scream toward the end as a chaotic contrast to the joyful section that it’s backing.
“Being in Love” is a bit of an odd opener for the record. The track kicks in with vocals that sound like they’re halfway through a verse. Despite having a sonic throughline this one feels very much like a long album intro especially when it kicks into the big hit on the record.
We show our hand, influence wise, again on “I Don’t Wanna Go Out.” On this one, Wet Leg uses a variation of the riff from David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World.” Toward the end there is this massive slowdown that breaks the entire track down note by note, in a long painstaking way that is jarring to a degree. On first listen it can be a bit of a turn off but once I got past that initial experience, I actually find it to be an effective device in the song structure.
While I think I’m missing inspirational context as far as a particular song goes, “Convincing” gives me a Madonna vibe. Everything from the opening vocal to the subtle bass groove and even the pop chorus that’s key driven reminds me of the Madonna songs my mother would play around the house in my childhood. It’s a pop song that is different in scope from the rest of the record but it’s a nice moment. There’s also some cigar lounge inflections on certain words and phrases that really adds some spice to the performances.
The song “Supermarket” is the festival formula in its highest form. It’s very participation based by nature with its group “nah-nahs” and easy to direct moments. How easy is it in a live setting to just teach a crowd to yell “buy one get one free” on your cue? I recognize that that’s low hanging fruit in a way, the track literally has gang vocals, but it’s to drive the point home that a crowd pleasing element is being engineered on this whole record. I’ve heard some comparisons to Weezer on this track and while I wish I didn’t have it in my head for my own review I could actually see that. The lowkey guitar verses, the easy to sing melodies, I could hear Rivers Cuomo singing this and that’s not a bad thing. It’s just another way that this group's favorite music is represented on their debut. If you enjoy Weezer to the extent that you want to compose a Weezer song, fuck it, go off, make a Weezer song.
The impressions I get off this record is that while it is post-punk in a lot of ways it works in a pop way overall. Yes, a lot of these songs are cut from a similar cloth and accomplish the same goal but at the same time the genres and influences they dip into make them their own experience respectively. To me a lot of these songs sound like the scrapbook method of taking parts from existing tracks that you already love and spinning them together in a way that makes them yours. If you’re more inclined to the alternative scene, think of Virigina DIY progressive post-hardcore band pulses. and their Tik Tok series where they breakdown how all of their songs are made. Despite the fact that I myself am not knowledgeable in a lot of the sound of the 80s and back, which I’m not ashamed to admit, I can recognize the praise for that era going on. I can understand where people are turned off though as they do sound very big and commercial and they only just came up. In a way though, you have to respect how unapologetically they are themselves despite that success. A band saying you can “suck their dick” in a track usually comes off as inauthentic but when it’s said on this record I believe that the use of vulgarity like that doesn’t come lightly and it’s meant in the moment it’s reflecting on. We even prove we can modify the recipe on tracks like “Loving You” and “Piece of Shit'' to make more mellow, acoustic cuts and not lose any of the charm.
All the positives of the personality aside, the record was very clearly made to win over crowds but didn’t it sort of have to be? When you’re thrown into this level of success so fast you feel like you have to play to the crowd you’re going to be dealt to otherwise they’ll just sort of eat you alive. I can also appreciate the fact that the stress of that success is reflected on the album the way it is. My true impression is, now that it’s in my hands, I love this record despite its derivative or sometimes formulaic delivery and find it to be my favorite of the year so far.
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