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Review

'moisturizer' is the second album by Indie Rock act "Wet Leg". Their first album was an easy to consume energetic time, but on moisturizer they mellow out their sound, but also build upon it. They maintain their familiar post-adolescent feel with tracks like 'CPR' and 'pokemon' but with a newfound maturity that comes from clear genuine growth as a band and as people. They're not pretending to have all the answers, but they know a thing or two about relationships now. The album maybe be a whole 2 minutes longer than their previous but it seems to go but much faster, or at least smoother. That's something that this album certainly is, it's smooth. The only thing that's rough around the edges is the themes the band are covering about life, sex, and love, especially love. In fact this album is almost entirely about love. Of course it's the one topic that basically any act has written about, but here I think they are certainly writing the modern version of a love song. With lines like "we go like salsa and Doritos" it's clear that they're not trying to be poets here, they're just writing what they feel. Which can be a nice change of pace, considering how highly a lot of artists seem to think of themselves and their "craft". There's a good amount of variation on this album. From the catchy high energy of 'mangetout' to the soft emotion of '11: 21' it's more than enough to keep your ears waiting for what they'll do next.

Wet Leg definitely has a great future in this scene if they keep making what they're good at, somewhat lo-fi catchy indie songs. I just hope to see them branch out thematically more on their next album, I think being so steadfast on the topic of love can be restricting sometimes. Their first album had this issue in some ways too, but they were masked in a clever way, like framing it as a song about a super market. Here's it's all very direct, which I'm sure many will enjoy. Personally I just think it would be more interesting to focus on more than just romance and sex. Of course it's working for them so I can't act like they don't know what they're doing. I will say, this album certainly as Grammy-friendly, not that it isn't good enough to get one, but simply what it is and what it covers doesn't have the same mass-appeal that their debut had. The cover certainly isn't easy on the eye, I love it personally but I could see the Grammy execs debating to show it on the screen. And the topics certainly aren't subtle, 'I can make you sticky'. But they did have a song called 'wet dream' on their debut so what do I know. 'moisturizer' is a great addition the Wet Leg catalog, which keeps what made them stick, and adds a smoother, more put together twist along with lyrics that bring out a child-a-heart mentality but informed by the experiences of an adult.