Dry Cleaning cut through the noise on ‘Let Me Grow and You’ll See the Fruit’
As is very clear by now, Dry Cleaning have mastered the art of the spoken word song. But more often than not, they pair this with a selection of screaming electrics which maintain the bravado of their hardcore edge.
Yet on their latest single, ‘Let Me Grow and You’ll See the Fruit’, all that excessiveness is stripped away in favour of finding and displaying to the world who they really are as a band. There are no airs and graces, no idea of pretensions, which course through the veins of this song. Instead, it’s an attempt to see the lay of the land just the way it is.
When you read the description that lyricist and vocalist Florence Shaw has given to the song, however, it may slightly take you aback. It’s apparently inspired by the smorgasbord of cultural hinge points, including the 1960s folk group Pentangle, the iconic movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, the ancient Roman poet Virgil, and the trumpeter Robyn Rocket.
As much as we can pretend all those influences have something in common (let’s be honest: they don’t), it’s this lack of creative inhibition that makes ‘Let Me Grow and You’ll See the Fruit’ as endearing as it is slightly bizarre. For longtime fans of Dry Cleaning, it offers a more introspective, softer side to the band. For those just getting started, the kaleidoscopic world they create is starting to spin.
By her own admission, Shaw says the track is “confessional, like a diary entry, written in a stream of consciousness style”. While that sense of literary flair may seem inaccessible and insurmountable to some, the mastery of the lyrics means that although the style might at first feel abstract and dizzying, it soon settles into something inherently universal and relatable.
Taking the narrative in its most simplistic form, it follows the thoughts of a main character as they spend a day in solitude. On one hand, you could associate that loneliness with a well of negativity – but as Shaw narrates her way through the fact that there is “no one coming along with a video, or a survey, or a dick pic, or a loud bang, or a smell that comes up,” it oozes with an overarching sense of contentment.
The song is self-righteous without ever overstepping the mark; indulgent enough to sometimes raise a wry smile, but not enough that it alienates the listener from a feeling they may not otherwise be invited into. By its very nature, spoken word can often veer on the dangerous edge of pretentiousness, but the balance is struck just right.
In essence, this is Dry Cleaning making the case clear once and for all that they are more than comfortable as they are. Sure, they can plug a guitar into an amp when they want and blitz up the scene, but if you want something that truly pierces the heart of the audience and speaks to the heart of the shared human condition, then none of that is really necessary.
It puts the band on the strongest possible footing as they head into the release of their third studio album, Secret Love, which is set for January 9th. They have proved they can go with all guns blazing, now it’s time to get to the root of what their music actually means. It may not always seem straightforward at first, but isn’t that the beauty of what a song should be?
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