Regular readers of the blog will be well aware of the big deal that this writer makes of how he comes into your life. I’m always intrigued about when a random song on the PA in a bar or shop leads you to find a song that becomes an integral part of your listening for the next while – there’s an alternate universe where you chose not to pay attention to it and just move on. Or in the case of the band, Wet Leg, a randomly placed YouTube thumbnail suggestion lead to listen to their breakout single, Chaise Longue. What a song!

There was something about the track that drew me in instantly. It was the mix of seemingly old school sounding guitar and bass lines, along with the vocals and lyrics that seemed to just be going for it without a care in the world. There was a freshness about the Isle of Wight natives that helped to make them standout from the other guitar bands that I was listening to at the time.

Chaise Longue made me feel excited about the band and what they might go on to do. But the song that really caught my attention and made me a proper fan of the band was the magical Wet Dream.

This is so good, so very very good. On first glance (or listen), it kind of just sounds like your standard rock song, but there are hints and nods to the uniqueness that has captured people’s attention with this band. The introduction to the song gives an immediately accurate representation of the instrumentation that has come to characterize the band thus far – with driving guitar and bass building a sense of anticipation that is then capped off with a powerful drumroll before vocalists, Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers, enter the fray.

“I was in your wet dream

Driving in my car

Saw you at the side of the road, there’s no one else around

You’re touching yourself”

Again, the vocals demonstrate a risque and reckless quality to them, with the explicitly sexual imagery showing a shift from what you’d normally here in an indie pop song. It further cements a sense of self that the band clearly have at this early stage in their development, and a willingness to explore concepts in a detail that isn’t often seen.

Wet Dream would also go on to get the Harry Styles treatment in the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge, which only helped to raise the profile of the band.

Lads, it’s just class…

MK