Wet Leg – “Chaise Longue”
Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers hail from the Isle of Wight off the south coast of England. Their band Wet Leg has signed to Domino Records, and today they’re releasing their debut single for the label, the immensely charming “Chaise Longue.”
The song builds tension and a sense of contagious fun out of little more than simple driving drums and bass and a playful guitar riff. But the main attraction is the lyrics, a parade of memorable non-sequiturs delivered by Teasdale in half-spoken sing-song. “Is your muffin buttered?” she nonchalantly inquires. “Would you like us to send someone to butter your muffin?” Or there’s this, in the cadence of a nursery rhyme: “Hey you, in the front row, are you coming backstage after the show? Cause I’ve got a chaise longue in the dressing room and a pack of warm beer that we can consume.”
The end result lands somewhere between Dry Cleaning’s wry, sardonic post-punk and Sports Team’s Pavement-obsessed alt-rock crowd-pleasers — though you can certainly hear stated influences such as the Ronettes, Jane Birkin, Ty Segall, and Björk in there too if you squint. In the video, Teasdale and Chambers don old-timey country hats and dresses and vibe out in a retro locale. It’s very good and you should watch it: