Stumpwork (studio album) by Dry Cleaning

Liked this a bit more than New Long Leg, the more downbeat feel really works for it. As with that record this is probably a bit of a non starter if you're not keen on the spoken word vocals which still have a kind of scattershot approach to lyricism, a stream of consciousness approach which can be mundane one moment and in the next hit you with a bizarrely affecting line like "We found your lingerie after you were gone, and it made you seem so human, and it made it seem like you had hopes and dreams and plans". Total speculation on my part, but I also wonder if this might be a bit more appealing to British listeners, there's a use of particular slang, intonations and observations that probably make more sense if they're a part of your own experience. All time great album cover kind of caps it off.

From Brad1770 01/13/2023 00:38

Unpopular opinion, ultimately this ones a bit of a snooze feast (cue down votes )

Album Rating: 73.09
(804/11)

Dog sledge people lose their way slightly at the back end.


1.Anna Calls From The Arctic. 90
2.Kwenchy Kups. 73
3.Gary Ashby. 72
4.Driver's Story. 72
5.Hot Penny Day. 76.
6.Stumpwork. 68
7.No Decent Shoes For Rain. 73
8.Don't Press Me. 72
9.Conservative Hell. 72
10.Liberty Log. 68
11.Icebergs. 68

Thew deapan vocal style may not be everyone's cup of tea but I like it and this album gets better with each listen

'Stumpwork', although not being quite as immediate as their debut effort, punches among a fine pantheon of records from UK post-rock bands this year such as Wet Leg, Yard Act and Porridge Radio.

From Arthurknight 11/03/2022 03:03

Stumpwork sees Dry Cleaning cleaning up their act – all the grit from their post-punk debut is pretty much gone. As much as I too wanna go see the otters and the water caterpillars, this subdued, instrumentally eclectic follow-up doesn't hold my attention. It lacks the visceral insistence on its being heard that New Long Leg had. Florence's grift of Sue Tompkins sounds even more obvious too. That having been said, there are plenty of redeeming qualities about Stumpwork: some of the songs are genuinely fun, albeit more in a conceptual than affective way. The single "Don't Press Me", while lacking development – the song structurally could built a bit better, and the mid-section guitar solo is just pathetic, truly – still sounds immediate and musically alive. Meanwhile, "Kwenchy Kups" is a lovely listen, but not a 2nd in the tracklisting fun, and begs the question of whether Shaw's deliberately flat timbre works (part of me imagines what Tompkins would do with the song), and "Icebergs" is actively weird in a good way; the only time that the disgusting chorus drenched guitars found across the album justify themselves sounding so meek.