Going viral is a strange thing.
For Wet Leg, they blew up overnight after a performance of their song Chaise Longue started being passed around social media. Responses were mixed, ranging from people enjoying the zany track to people accusing the band of being industry plants and writing them off completely as “NPC music” or “Music for people who don’t like music”.
Developing an opinion on a band based on a 10-second clip from Tik-Tok isn’t fair, but social media is throwing one’s opinion out the second it hits their brain.
Whether it was the positive attention or the negative attention which increased their notoriety, the fact is that after only a few weeks, more people knew who Wet Leg were than the band members could have possibly expected.
For a while, they only had two songs available to the public, those songs being the aforementioned Chaise Longue and their following single Wet Dream. This further rubbed people the wrong way as accusations persisted of Industry Plant-ism.
Side note: I’ve found that when people use the phrase “Industry Plant” to write off a band or artist, they don’t have anything substantial to say about the music’s quality besides that they don’t like it. People always ach to bring objectivity to their opinion because opinions on music are all subjective.
My views on whether an album is good or not is my opinion. I am happy to admit that as a critic, there is no objective way to consume or enjoy media. I will not waste your time by justifying my opinions based on something as shallow as “industry plant” because when people say that, it just shows everyone in the room that they have nothing substantive to say.
Speaking of my opinion, what do I think of Wet Leg?
They’re good!
I was not in love with Chaise Longue when it hit the scene. I didn’t hate it, but I did not seek out their eponymous album when it came out.
Listening to it now, they have plenty to offer throughout this project.
The most noticeable qualities of Wet Leg’s music are the soothing and simple instrumentation and the simple, sometimes zany lyricism. None of the band members are prodigies, nor do they pretend to be. They are making fun poppy rock music about love, breakups, sex, anxiety, and adulthood.
I was surprised to find that the two singers of the band were 28 and 29 years old respectively, because this album did a great job of capturing the innocence one might find in a teenager’s first album.
The album never takes itself too seriously. A track like Loving You will get dramatic about a bad ex-boyfriend while underscored by an accordion. Convincing is another song about love gone wrong which caps off with talks about Bioluminescent Plankton. Get Me Down details a story of anxiety and feeling trapped within a social situation by telling us about a girl who brought lasagna to a party.
The point is the album never lets itself get down. It’s not a hard rocker or a party album, but it is all about having fun and being happy. However, I think this album’s biggest strength can, at times, be its biggest weakness.
The simplicity of the lyrics is good for dancing and just vibing out. In terms of actual substance though, you do not find much past the first listen. Lead singer Rhian Teasdale said on Apple Music that “When [she’s] writing the lyrics for all the songs with Wet Leg, [she’s] quite careful to lean towards using quite straightforward, unfussy language and [she] avoid[s], at all costs, using similes”.
Songs like Supermarket (about the joys of getting high and going to the grocery store) and Oh No (about doomscrolling and getting sucked into your cell phone) both seem like novelty songs which, frankly, is the last thing a band which went viral off a line from the film Mean Girls needs.
A line from a song comparing an ex-boyfriend to fecal matter, saying he will either “sink or float” feels like it crosses the line from zany to just stupid.
Also, some songs, while sentimental, do come across more as wallpaper than the main course like the buried vocals on the album closer Too Late Now.
That said, there are still moments which stick out from this project. The “longest and loudest scream” from Ur Mum remains in the noggin, as do the hooks from songs like Wet Dream and Angelica.
The instrumentals, while basic, are fun and creative. They do have a knack for making sunny and bright jams throughout the album. I was bored sometimes but never dour or frustrated with the project. In fact, I’d say the album was never bad as it was sometimes just nothing.
Overall, I would call this a good album. I would not say it is essential, but it is a pleasant listen. If you are thinking of listening to Wet Leg, I would recommend Angelica, Wet Dreams, Loving You, and Ur Mom. If you are willing to put up with some iffy lyricism, Oh No and Supermarket are also fun, albeit stupid, tracks.