Dry Cleaning - Secret Love (2026)
When I listen to Secret Love, I feel like I’m returning to a space I already understand. The band’s language is immediately familiar: clipped rhythms, controlled restraint, and that unmistakable spoken delivery that keeps emotion deliberately flattened.
What still works for me is the precision. The voice lands lines without emphasis, letting mundane details sit there until they almost start to matter on their own. I like how little the band tries to underline meaning. The music stays out of the way, functioning more as a frame than a driver, and that minimalism suits their approach.
But I also feel the narrowness of the record more clearly here. Once I’ve settled into its cadence, nothing really shifts. The songs don’t open up or turn against themselves; they just continue to operate within a tight, well-defined perimeter. I’m engaged, but I’m rarely pulled deeper than that initial level of attention.
I don’t hear this as a failure so much as a limitation the band seems comfortable with. There’s discipline in not overreaching, but there’s also a sense that the record is content to maintain rather than probe its own form. I’m listening closely, but not urgently.
By the end, I feel like I’ve spent time with a consistent voice rather than encountered a compelling development. I respect the control and the clarity, but I’m left with the sense that I’ve seen the full shape of the record early on.
For me, Secret Love holds together as a clean, focused continuation — sharp in tone, self-aware, and deliberately contained — but it never quite crosses the line from engagement into necessity.
Genre: Post Punk
Country: UK
Final Verdict: 62% (Good Album)
Yearly Ranking: 12th / 19
Highlight: Cruise Ship Designer
Made me think of:
Nico
Life Without Buildings
Young Marble Giants
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