Each week The Hard Times takes a good hard look at a banger of an album. This week we’ll be sitting down with the highly acclaimed self-titled 2022 debut from British band Wet Leg.
Not many albums are as impressive, infectious, irreverent, and downright fun as Wet Leg’s. It’s so good that they released six singles for it. That’s more than “Nevermind” had. Highly recommend giving this record a listen. Just make sure to exercise extreme caution because tracks will get stuck in your head for literal days at a time with no relief in sight.
Take “Chaise Longue” for instance. It’s so catchy that it took me a solid month to get that one out of my noggin. Sure, at first it’s all fun and games when the lyric “excuse me (what)” randomly pops in your brain several times an hour or during sex. But good luck trying to fall asleep at night when this bop is just repeating itself between the ears like that awkward thing you said in seventh grade.
The only way I successfully got this track out of my head was by inadvertently swapping it with Wet Leg’s song “Wet Dream.” This is another excellent track, yet it somehow just as easily gets lodged deep within the crevices of your cerebral cortex. And don’t even get me started on hits like “Angelica” or “Oh No” either.
It’s almost as if their songs are little catchy parasites that infect your brain and consume your every being until you die or are physically decapitated. It’s exactly like those fungus zombies from “The Last of Us” but instead of being diabolical mushrooms, it’s cool indie songs that poison you and make you do their bidding. It makes sense when you consider that this album already made me buy their merch and tickets to one of their shows. Possibly against my will.
To wrap up, I haven’t had to listen to this album in months because it somehow reprogrammed my brain to only think, see, and communicate in these songs and lyrics. So on one hand I have nothing but love for this record. On the other hand, it is quite possibly an apocalyptic detriment to the brain that needs to be destroyed before it gradually wipes out the human race. Can’t tell for sure.
Score: 10 out of 10 (though it might be the Wet Leg songs talking)