TRACK REVIEW: Wet Leg - Too Late Now

TRACK REVIEW:

Wet Leg

PHOTO CREDIT: Hollie Fernando

Too Late Now

9.5/10

The track, Too Late Now, is available from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB3PJwPMHzQ

RELEASE DATE:

29th November, 2021

ORIGIN:

Isle of Wight, U.K.

GENRE:

Indie Rock

The album, Wet Leg, is available from 8th April, 2022 and can be pre-ordered here:

https://wetleg.tmstor.es/

LABEL:

Domino

__________

EVEN though their latest tracks…

PHOTO CREDIT: Frances Beach

was released earlier in the week, I wanted to review Wet Leg. Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers have had quite an eventful and successful 2021! Many people did not know about them at the start of the year. With their debut, Chaise Longue, doing wonderfully well and making them a duo to watch, they have followed it up with several other great tracks. I am going to come to Too Late Now soon. Prior to evaluating that song, there are various aspects that I need to cover off. Many people might be curious to know how Wet Leg started life. In an NME interview from September, we discovered how Wet Leg began life:

“It all started with a pact. Following almost a decade of friendship (Teasdale and Chambers met at college, and played in various bands and as fledgling solo musicians on their native Isle Of Wight), the pair took a spontaneous, mildly drunk ferris wheel trip at 2019’s End Of The Road festival. It is here where they found the embryonic elements of Wet Leg after seeing IDLES storm the main stage that evening – and they decided to start something of their own, on the basis that they “wanted to have more fun than every other single band”.

“We agreed on the premise of our band there and then: as long as you’re having fun, then everything will be alright,” says singer Teasdale. “And we’ve told ourselves that we’ll stick to that, always.” It set them unwaveringly on a path towards experimenting with different styles – including percussive elements and big pop choruses – before they finally nailed the Wet Leg sound while stuck together in quarantine, as Teasdale learned to play guitar in between songwriting sessions and hours of longboard dancing – an intricate subset of skateboarding that the pair say taught them how to be more patient with each other”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Hollie Fernando

I am struck by how Teasdale and Chambers came together and started to plan their musical careers. It is that possibility of fun that pushed them forward. As we can see from an interview with The Line of Best Fit, bands such as IDLES were a source of inspiration and impetus:

“So where did the dream really start for Wet Leg? Teasdale elaborates on the band’s musical origins: both she and Chambers have been writing since they were approximately 17 years old. “A few years ago, we were going around festivals together with a different project, which was more folky - I was playing piano and she was playing guitar. We just spent the summer playing at a few little festivals and seeing music together.

“We'd seen Big Thief and Idles, and we saw that they were having so much fun when they were playing live, we realised we wanted to do that too. We wanted to start a band like Wet Leg, be more punky and fun, so that [we] could play guitar quite loud.” The pair were also inspired by the sounds of Aussie punks The Chats, who Teasdale cites as “a good example” of something that inspired the duo to write songs that “don't take themselves too seriously.”

“Before COVID, I had actually stopped doing music altogether,” Teasdale reveals. “Hester was also really busy making jewellery for the family business and I was in London working crazy, crazy hours doing wardrobe assistant stuff. So, Wet Leg was just a kind of 'as and when' thing. But when the pandemic happened, I came back to the Isle of Wight for it and I stayed in a house on my own and just wrote loads, and that's when we made the video for 'Chaise Longue”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Holly Whitaker

Not to stick too much on this theme but, to give context and background to Wet Leg’s beginning, I will bring in an interview from The Current. The Isle of Wight-formed duo were asked about the reality of going from visualising and suggesting a group to actually making it happen:

“Chaise Longue" has been such a catchy song ever since we've been playing it last summer, we've been wanting to know more about you. So let's start from the beginning, and I know that the beginning is not that long ago with the two of you being in a band. Take me back to how the two of you know each other, and how you decided to start a band.

HESTER CHAMBERS: You go first, I think you're faster.

RHIAN TEASDALE: Ok I'll go fast, and then if I forget anything, you have to butt in and let me know. So we've known each other since college. But we've been in and out of bands on the Isle of Wight, never quite seeming to come together. Then I was doing like a solo thing, and I was sick of it, and sick of doing everything by myself. It was really boring, and I got the courage together to ask Hester if she'd play the last few run of shows with me, before I stopped doing it. Then we just ended up having a really fun summer of just like going to festivals and seeing loads of music and getting inspired. That's where we came up with the idea to start our own band, start something fresh. Start something where we're both playing guitars. For the past projects I was playing keys and sat down, and it was quite folky and a bit subdued and all the lyrics were like, really introspective and sad. So rolling around festivals together in the summer, I think that really influenced our band and what we wanted it to be about.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jono White

I don't know a ton about where you live--the Isle of Wight, I connect that to a pretty major music festival. Is that something that the two of you have attended together and you felt some inspiration like, "Hey, we want to do that." I mean, it's one thing to say, "Hey, let's start a band!" But then to actually do it is another thing. Hester, I just want to ask you, when the concept of the band came up, how do you decide like, "Okay, well, this is the kind of music we like," or, "This is the kind of music we want to play," because you guys make some really fun songs from what I've heard so far.

HESTER CHAMBERS: Early on, we were just getting to grips with playing guitars in a different way. Well, for me in a different way to what I had done before, and for Rhian to even really pick one up. So it was having the courage, and we started off kind of trashy, like we just wanted to make the sounds and have loads of fun doing it.

So how long between the time that you know, "Okay, we're going to start a band. Here we're going to test out some sounds. We know that we want to play guitars. We know we want to have fun." How long between that and playing your first show together?

RHIAN TEASDALE: Not long. We didn't even have a full set of songs.

When you were going to play your first show together, what did you do? You're like, "Okay, we have to fill a set time." So for that first show what did you guys decide to do? How did you fill the time?

HESTER CHAMBERS: Oh, what was our first one? It was--

RHIAN TEASDALE: It was Isle of Wight Festival.

HESTER CHAMBERS: Yeah, a locals tent, like really great. It was our favorite place to be when we go to the festival. I think we probably had about half an hour, but we definitely didn't hit that. I think one of the songs we did was a cover of a friend's song”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Holly Whitaker

One of the most distinct aspects of Wet Leg is their name. Whilst not one that ranks alongside the best and most memorable, it at least does stem from the duo’s desire not to be taken too seriously – or at least not have people analyse their name too much for hidden meanings. In an interview from The Forty-Five, the duo talked about naming one of their singles Wet Dream. Maybe fearing that some would find the song too raunchy, they explained why they kept the title:

“There was a bit of a discussion about whether [‘Wet Dream’] was a bit raunchy, a bit racy. Oooooh,” says Rhian, mockingly. “Our radio plugger was like, ‘It is a bop, but… is it OK to talk about being in someone’s wet dream?’

“I feel like if it was a guy that segued it in there, nobody would bat an eyelid,” she posits “But it’s because we’re sweet little girls, it’s a problem.”

They’ve not been deterred though, sex is a running theme in Wet Leg songs but the stories are told through a slightly Vic and Bob lens. Does Rhian have to channel her Sasha Fierce alter ego when writing about doin’ the do?

“Yeah, I can’t just be full-on Sexy Goddess. I have to be Sexy Goddess with lobster claws. Lobster Goddess”

Maybe that will come down the line? For album two, you can lose the claws?

“I don’t know. I have to take those claws into the bedroom, otherwise I can’t be that version of myself. My boyfriend is like ‘Please, just for once! Not the claws!” and I’m like “No! I’m a sexual being. They’re staying”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Hollie Fernando

I am not aware of too many other artists based on the Isle of Wight. There is Lauran Hibberd and a few others, yet I am informed that there is a burgeoning scene and a lot of promising artists here. Among the rising artists from the Isle of Wight, Wet Leg are definitely putting the area on the map (though both of them are not based here anymore). Coming back to the interview with The Forty-Five, it seemed that the Isle of Wight was a great area for Teasdale and Chambers to grow up in:

“Growing up on the Isle of Wight, though remote, was a good base for the band. Their youth was spent getting sloshed on the beach and dabbling in music. And though bands typically missed The Isle off their touring route, there was a burgeoning music scene that required its participants to think a little deeper. “The only gigs that happen [on the Isle of Wight] are pretty DIY, which is quite nice” Rhian explains. “You have to get quite creative with it. There’s a festival called Ventnor Fringe Festival. I played one of my first ever [solo] gigs there and back in the day, there would just be pop-up venues. One was a house that was still being built. The floor was all rubble and they put tea lights in the walls. It was a show to only about 20 people but it was great. So while it’s a shame you can’t easily go and see touring bands because it’s so expensive to get over, it’s kind of nice because you have this small DIY scene. People make their own fun, I guess.”

In music terms, The Isle of Wight is famed for its annual festival which ran from 1968-1970 before being revived in the early noughties. For Wet Leg, it marked the start of the summer. “I know a lot of people who failed their GCSEs because they were the same week as Isle of Wight Festival,” says Rhian. “My housemate is 32, and even now is just like: ‘Why did I not go to my Maths GCSE?’ But the festivals were really good. Really inspiring”.

I cannot talk about Wet Leg’s new single without nodding back to Chaise Longue. So many people’s favourite track of the year, it definitely announced an original and promising new musical force. Humorous and catchy, it is no surprise the song has captured such a wave of appreciation and love. When they spoke with Under the Radar Mag earlier in the year, the duo reacted to the reception of their debut single:

“Wet Leg’s tongue in cheek humor abounds on their hypnotic debut single, “Chaise Longue.” Fittingly the track was inspired by Chambers’ grandfather’s chaise longue. “I kind of inherited it,” she explains, “and it now lives in my flat. When Rhian stays over it’s also where she sleeps. She actually wrote all the lyrics to ‘Chaise Longue’ whilst sitting on the chaise longue (all day long).”

It only took a few demos to convince Domino Records to sign Wet Leg. “Given we’d formed pretty much at the start of the pandemic and Domino hadn’t really seen us live,” reveals Chambers. “It’s so great that they have put their faith in us.”

Chambers is also delighted, albeit somewhat taken aback, about how “Chaise Longue” has resonated with people. At the time of this writing its video has over 800,000 views on YouTube, with comments such as “This has got to be the greatest debut single in years,” “Finally something fucking different, that does something new,” and “This is going to skyrocket, and if it doesn’t, it’ll be one of the coolest gems in music history.”

“It’s been a lovely surprise,” she says, “we wrote it in one an evening, just writing for fun and being silly and we had no clue at the time that it would connect with so many people”.

They were perhaps not expecting such popularity and focus after their first single. Being tipped as a band/duo to watch, Wet Leg have followed Chaise Longue with other songs that show they have range and a great sonic locker of new sounds and lyrical wonder. Circling back to the interview from The Line of Best Fit, the duo discuss what happened after the success of Chaise Longue:

“The pair have managed to create equally distinctive visuals which complement their eccentric lyrics and melodies. I ask where her ideas for the visuals come from, as they look deceptively simple. “You're right, they are quite simple. Particularly 'Chaise Longue' where there's just three set-ups that it chops between: it's just vibe - there's no narrative. It's just this little world with us two as these cottage-core characters.

“It was all kind of accidental,” Teasdale recalls. “I ordered loads of clothes from the internet, and we tried on some different looks and outfits. We went for the big hats, flaming sunglasses and pretty dresses just because we thought it was a funny look. We had loads of other setups planned for that video, but after the first evening of taking a camera out and playing around, when we got back and I downloaded the free trial of Final Cut Pro and I dragged it into the computer and put the song to it, it seemed like it was kind of already done.”

After the success of “Chaise Longue” the duo received support from their label for a new video, so were able to take things up a notch with the visuals for “Wet Dream,” which include a food fight and some hand-made lobster claws. “It was weird going from making music videos with just Hester, to having to explain your ideas to proper people when this is their job.” Teasdale explains. “That was a funny transition, but it was really nice to have people on board that knew what they were doing. The ideas we have for videos always seem to come from the outfits we’re wearing. I think it stems from the characters that we create and the world that we build around that”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Holly Whitaker

Since a lot of interviews from earlier in the year, Wet Leg have made announcements (such as the fact their eponymous album is out in the spring) and made strides. Looking at an interview with DORK from September, Wet Leg explained what they did when they learned that word of Chaise Longue reached New York:

“Despite the modesty on their part, there’s no question in our eyes that Wet Leg are soon going to be a Very Big Deal Indeed. We know, don’t count your chickens before they hatch and all that, but with a debut single as cracking as theirs, it really does feel nailed on. It seems we’re not the only ones getting excited, with Chaise Longue getting regular radio airplay and blanket coverage which even reached publications in New York. In true rock’n’roll style, this unexpected success was celebrated with… a beach barbecue.

“It was an eventful barbecue, though!” says Rhian. “After it was done, we wanted to make a little campfire, and I decided to tip out the hot coals onto this pile of wood we’d made, to really get it going. So I pick up the barbecue, and I’m all full of myself like ‘this is a pretty cool idea’. I charge over to the wood holding the barbecue and just put my foot in the sand where the barbecue has been for several hours, and when I turn round to see why my foot is so hot, I realise I’m just in this glowing red sand! So yeah, we had a pre-recorded Radio 1 interview, and I listened to it with my foot in the sink for about four hours, hoping I hadn’t permanently crippled myself.”

“It was so gnarly!” says Hester. “Rhian was so cool about it, real rockstar stuff.”

“I’ve actually got fresh skin coming through now, which looks more beautiful than my skin has in years,” says Rhian. “So if the band doesn’t work out, I’m going to become a beauty therapist and get people to walk on burning hot sand. No pain, no gain”.

The more that you read and learn about Wet Leg, the more that you realise that they are very cool and laidback. Teasdale and Chambers spoke with Stereogum when their second single, Wet Dream, came out. An American publication, they were clearly impressed with what Wet Leg had to offer:

“It’s true: Wet Leg are cool. They might hail from the southern coast of England, but their sound is pure West Coast charm and perverse Midwestern nonchalance — which is to say their closest musical relatives are perhaps the shambling slacker rock of Pavement or the Breeders at their goofiest and most carefree. Debut single “Chaise Longue” is a smart, charmingly nonsensical bop, which blends flipped Mean Girls references (“Is your mother worried? Would you like us to assign someone to worry your mother?”) and bawdy puns (“I went to school and I got the big D”) with an infectious chorus.

In a similar vein, second single “Wet Dream” is an entertaining rebuke to a booty-calling ex, in which lead vocalist Rhian Teasdale’s sultry come-ons (“Baby, do you want to come home with me?”) are entertainingly deflated by her dubious boast “I’ve got Buffalo 66 on DVD.” Their flair for the sardonic and slightly surreal carries over to more vulnerable material like “Too Late Now,” billed as a song about “sleepwalking into adulthood.” Even their band name — which doesn’t mean anything at all, according Teasdale — summons up a tangle of gross, sexy insinuations. Wet Leg are a fizzing tonic for the UK’s indie rock scene, a genre well known for its tendency to take itself a little too seriously”.

Although it would have been harder for Wet Leg to get traction last year, 2021 has not exactly been ideal! As gigs have only come back relatively recently, there are still restrictions and drawbacks. In the Stereogum interview, Wet Leg revealed how they had time to figure out a plan and work on music when lockdown was implemented last year. They have also wasted little time in catching up:

“When the pandemic ground normal life to a halt, Teasdale suddenly had a lot more time on her hands: “Suddenly me and [Chambers] actually had the time to focus on making music. Wet Leg began as just us pursuing our hobbies, because it was a good way to fill our time, but we ended up finding a manager in lockdown, signing to Domino [Records] in lockdown, hitting all of these career milestones in lockdown…” One of the next milestones on tap: the release of their self-titled debut album in April.

Like TV Priest or Dry Cleaning, Wet Leg have firmly joined the ranks of the bands who have had to negotiate the majority of their careers while the world was shut down. Before lockdown, they’d only ever played four gigs, with three of them “on the Isle of Wight, for [their] parents.” By contrast, their fifth-ever gig in a packed-out tent at Latitude Festival, as part of the UK government’s pilot scheme testing out the viability of live events after the pandemic. Wet Leg are wasting no time catching up, though — they’ve just come off a stint supporting Declan McKenna and Inhaler, with the latter celebrating their last set by delivering a real-life chaise longue mid-set, for the band to recline on while playing its namesake. As we speak, they’re gearing up for a UK headline tour — one which quickly sold out, prompting them to dryly tweet, “Big thank you to everyone that’s bought a ticket after having only heard two songs haha.”

While Teasdale described life as a solo touring artist as a bit of a drag (“lots of driving places by yourself, and soundchecking on your own, having all of this lonely weird limbo time”), her experience touring as part of a band has been a very different experience: “It’s been fun, really fun, we’re part of a lovely bunch.” And if it stops being fun, Teasdale makes it clear she won’t be sticking around — this time, she’s adamant that “we’re not trying to achieve anything… we’re just in a band for the fun of it”.

I will end this review by sourcing a review of one of their live shows. It is evident that there are big gigs looming and the duo are going to busy in 2022 (they have announced extensive tour dates on their social media channels and website). Coming back to the NME interview from the start, Wet Leg explained some of the challenges of playing bigger stages; they also want to be recognised as guitar heroes:

“Playing their first real performances to bulging festival tents this summer – including a legend-making Latitude set and more recently, a homecoming show at Isle of Wight Festival – the pair proved that they have enough material to keep the band moving forward beyond being the flavour of the month. With its hollered vocals and squally riffs, they say that second single ‘Wet Dream’ – a punk-leaning number that is equally cheeky as its predecessor – was received ecstatically. But these shows (which included support slots with Declan McKenna) also proved that the band is still in its infancy – despite the fact that they’ve already achieved what so many of their peers could dream of.

“We’ve been playing big stages that we haven’t properly grown into yet,” Chambers explains. “Even on a practical level it’s been a challenge; I’ve struggled with asking for what I want in my monitors and coping with the size of the crowds that have come to see us.” She pauses. “But that’s OK. We’re always learning.”

Wet Leg have come to realise that bearing up to their new everyday reality is an extraordinary experience for any band to process, let alone one that had only played four gigs – “including three on the Isle Of Wight to our family,” says Chambers, giggling – prior to lockdown. When asked if they think that the hype around them is overblown, they agree immediately, and posit that the feverish online chatter and mega-exciting cosigns (from Hayley Williams and Iggy Pop, no less) have burdened them with stratospheric expectations from the off.

“We want to be recognised as guitar heroes, as it doesn’t hurt to win sometimes,” Teasdale says, hesitantly, as though she is analysing her own answer word-by-word in real-time. “But also, you just have no control over these things as music is so subjective, and we’re not ultra competitive people…”

NME interjects: But surely there is no harm in being competitive, though, when the bar has already been set so high by yourselves?

“It’s absolutely nuts – and right now, we can’t even”.

Revealed with another new song, Oh No, the duo announced their eponymous debut album for the spring. Many will look back on the songs Wet Leg have put out this year and explain which is the best. Although Chaise Longue set them on a new path of success, subsequent songs have built their sound and almost improved on that track. Too Late Now is a song that Teasdale and Chambers have said is about sleepwalking into adulthood – something that many of us can identify with! The video for the track is typically memorable and fun. There is a dreaminess to the introduction. With some groove, bounce and pulsating drums, I get touches of 1990s’ music. Elements of bands like The Sundays, perhaps. In the video, we see the duo and others dressed in bath robes and towels. It is like they have just woken up. Walking the streets, it signals this humorous nature of the duo! They are definitely not taking themselves too seriously! That said, the video (directed by Fred Rowson) is beautifully shot and it looks great. The first verse, with lyrics delineated and punctuated precisely and slowly, sticks in the memory: “If I thought that you were cool/We would have hung out more in school/But now that we have all grown up/Well, all my friends have given up”. I wonder if that verse is about Wet Leg aiming words at someone else or something that someone has said to them. As the song is this sleepwalk into adulthood, maybe it attests to the fact that, perhaps, they were not too cool for school and have only recently obtained a level of coolness and credibility – long after many of their friends and peers might have. In the video, the duo move to a supermarket (still dressed in robes and towels) and are piling things from a shelf (in what looks like a chemist) into a trolley. The vocal pace and feel stays the same until the pre-chorus. It seems that, for all the reflection and recognition of life not being quite as bodacious as it could be, there is a certain level of acceptance too: “No, there's nothing left to say/I just get up and walk away/If it ain’t broke, don't try to fix/Well, life's supposed to be this shit”.

The pre-chorus sees the vocal change from this slowly-delivered thing to a faster, talk-sung section. Whilst many bands employ talk singing (including the almost oppositely-named Dry Cleaning (who are quite dull with it), Wet Leg are quite compelling when they are more conversational. It is at this point in the video where we see Rhian Teasdale peeling what looks like a cucumber (though it could be a courgette!). The pre-chorus mentions a soul-lifting bubble bath, a sort-of nod to Dire Straits’ Money for Nothing, in addition to asking whether the song they are singing is, well…a song: “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/Everything is going wrong/I think I changed my mind again/I'm not sure if this is the kinda life that I saw myself living/I don't need no dating app to tell me if I look like crap/To tell me if I'm thin or fat, to tell me should I shave my rat/I don't need no radio, no MTV, no BBC/I just need a bubble bath to set me on a higher path”. I love Teasdale’s vocals in this part. There is a sense of weariness, yet I can also detect so many other elements and emotions (she would sound great narrating documentaries or voicing audiobooks!). The video remains fun and striking as one member of the cast wanders the streets, cucumbers on eyes (that solves the cucumber vs. courgette debate!) looking zombified. Rather than, like Chaise Longue, there is a more typical structure where the chorus is repeated and is the dominant focus…Too Late Now brings us two verses, a pre-chorus, the chorus and then the outro. The chorus, to me is the best Wet Leg have written. It is quite angry, explicit, defeated and a little harrowing.

I was wondering, reading the lyrics, whether we might have seen the duo in a car like Thelma and Louise, heading for a tragic death. Maybe budgetary constraints put pave to anything like that! Chambers is seen flagging a lift, mind: “I'm gonna drive my car into the sea/I’m gonna drive downtown while looking pretty ordinary/Too late now, lost track somehow/I’m like, oh my god, this world is pretty harrowing/Down we go while holding hands/If I fuck this up, I'm taking you down with me/Too late now, lost track somehow/Well, if I fuck this up, I’m taking you down with me/I'm gonna drive my car into the sea/I'm gonna drive downtown while looking pretty ordinary/Too late now, lost track somehow/I'm like, oh my god, this world is pretty harrowing”. I think Too Late Now is one of the most fun and well-developed songs from Wet Leg. It has a lot of fizz and bounce, whilst the composition is rich and raw at the same time. The outro does sort of return to the pre-chorus where the bubble bath is mentioned; a remedy and way to obtain truth and order. A great song that will appear on the Wet Leg in April, this might be the best offering from the duo so far. Seemingly getting stronger with every release, it means their album is going to be pretty fantastic!

With a series of gigs and a debut album out next year, 2022 is going to be the most successful one for Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers. The Guardian caught Wet Leg playing Omera in London in October. It is clear that they are a stunning live proposition:

“Happily, there were more ear worms where Chaise Longue came from: Wet Leg’s second single, Wet Dream, found lead singer Teasdale wringing humour from an ex’s sexual fantasy. Its oh-so-catchy chorus and disco handclaps prove irresistible tonight.

If Wet Leg’s signature move is a kind of sarcastic innuendo (“I’ve got Buffalo 66 on DVD” is one of Teasdale’s come hithers), they perform it while looking thoroughly wholesome. The band’s videos featured the pair dressed as folksy “cottage-core” milkmaids – homespun frauleins who nonetheless sometimes sport lobster claws. They might look like First Aid Kit, but live Wet Leg’s sound recalls bands such as Elastica and the Breeders or a slew of more recent acts Wet Leg have talked up in interviews, Australian punks the Chats, for one.

Tonight, no one is actually wearing a wimple, although the guitarist has a chintzy curtain tassel dangling from his guitar neck. And although it is still very early days – an album is mooted for some time next year – the band Wet Leg probably most resemble tonight is Pavement, a mainstay of the Domino label in the 90s. It’s in the offhand way Teasdale delivers non-sequiturs and the stop-start pacing and fuzzy crescendos of their songs.

‘It’s a miracle no one gets brained by a stray tuning key’: Wet Leg at Omeara. Photograph: Andy Hall/The Observer

Some songs punch out from the default indie rock of this short set. I Don’t Want to Go Out drips with trademark Teasdale snark, accessorised here and there by a spacey, theremin-like keyboard line. A song called Supermarket confirms their skewwhiff indie-rock orientation. Later, Teasdale sings about checking her phone on another off-kilter track that has an unexpectedly heavy, near-psychedelic payoff.

In between are songs that depart from the template in their quietude or straightforwardness. In interviews, Wet Leg have alluded to previous outfitsthat didn’t bear fruit. Some basic internet research reveals Teasdale’s very respectable past as a piano-playing folk singer, Rhain, in the mould of Joanna Newsom – a far cry from the arch, cod-Amish badass she has become.

The “fun” plan seems to be working, though. “We’re going to play the last song now,” says Teasdale pointedly. And the band blast through a joyous rendition of Chaise Longue, the two friends yelling the lyrics at each other, grinning all the while”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Andy Hall/The Observer

Although Wet Leg are a band on stage, it is obviously very much about the lead duo of Teasdale and Chambers. I have been referring to them as a duo because, in all the interviews and promotional photos, that is who were are presented. On stage, there are other members to flesh out their sound. In a DIY from September, Wet Leg talked about their stage ethos. It was clear that, even then, they had much more material than Chaise Longue in their arsenal:

“As those recent shows have attested, however, Wet Leg have more than enough material up their sleeves to keep a crowd on side. More exciting than the initial thrill of their first offering is that ‘Chaise Longue’ isn’t even their best track. Buoyed by the endearing dynamic between their leaders - friends for a decade since college - Wet Leg’s songs are full of playful quirks and giddy kicks; for all that they describe themselves as “painfully polite” people in real life, musically there are moments during their live set that align them more with a British take on Yeah Yeah Yeahs, packed with exuberance and screams.

“Pretty early on we came up with the ethos of, ‘Feel the fear, and do it anyway’. Be scared, that’s fine, you’re always gonna be scared, but don’t let it get on top of you,” says Rhian of their mindset. “And also we shout at each other: ‘THIS IS A SAFE SPACE!!’”

“When we started the band we were listening to The Garden, Big Thief and IDLES,” continues Hester. “Things where there’s something fun in the music and there are no rules, and it’s free.” Even their name, explains Rhian, acts as “a good reminder to not take yourself too seriously”. “And also,” she caveats, “I think it came round because I saw Squid had a little squid emoji and I was so jealous, so we smashed at our phones to see what combinations came up. There were some ridiculous ones but to be safe we went with Wet Leg”.

I will review Wet Leg again when their eponymous album arrives in April. It is already one of the most highly-anticipated albums of next year. Even though the year is not yet done, Wet Leg are going to want to rest and recharge over Christmas. 2022 will be exciting and successful for Wet Leg. It is a year where we will…