Dry Cleaning Announce New Album ‘Stumpwork’, Share Video For ‘Don’t Press Me’

June 15, 2022

English post-punk band Dry Cleaning have announced a new album Stumpwork. It’s Dry Cleaning’s second full-length effort in little more than a year, following the band’s acclaimed 2021 debut New Long Leg. A video for the new single ‘Don’t Press Me’ has been released. ‘

Don’t Press Me’ picks up where New Long Leg left off. Speaking on ‘Don’t Press Me’, vocalist Florence Shaw said, “The words in the chorus came about because I was trying to write a song to sing to my own brain, ‘You are always fighting me / You are always stressing me out.’”

The animated music video was created by Peter Millard, whose naïve depictions of the band are perfectly in sync with the song’s hooks and riffs. Stumpwork will be released on Friday, 21st October.

Dry Cleaning – ‘Don’t Press Me’

The South London group’s first studio album, New Long Leg, was recorded in just two weeks with producer John Parish at the iconic Welsh studio, Rockfield Studios. The record became a huge critical and commercial success, reaching #4 in the UK Album Charts and featuring in best-of-2021 polls across the board.

Buoyed by its success, Shaw, Nick Buxton (drums), Tom Dowse (guitar), and Lewis Maynard (bass) returned to rural Wales in late 2021, partnering once more with Parish and engineer Joe Jones. Working in the same studio and with the same team, the band members’ imposter syndrome and anxiety was replaced by fresh freedom and openness to explore beyond an already rangy sonic palette. This instilled a newfound confidence in their creative vision, the band said.

Stumpwork was inspired by a wide variety of events, concepts, and political debacles over the past year. Shaw’s surrealist lyrics remain at the forefront, but there is sensitivity to the themes of family, money, politics, self-deprecation, and sensuality. Alt-rock fury combines with jangle pop and ambient noise, demonstrating the band’s musicality and deep pool of influences.