Dream Wife release new album “Social Lubrication”
This Friday sees the release of Dream Wife’s third album “Social Lubrication” and it follows the release of their self-titled debut “Dream Wife” released in 2018 and the enormously successful “So When You Gonna…” which came out in 2020. Based in London, Dream Wife are vocalist Rakel Mjöll (she/her), guitarist Alice Go (she/her), bassist Bella Podpadec (they/them).
The new album is entirely self-written and self-produced by the band, with the only outside influence being the heavyweight mixing duo of Alan Moulder and Caesar Edmunds (Wet Leg, Beach House).
An incendiary and riotous record, it finds the band once again tackling big subjects in their trademark unapologetic manner. Merging the political with the playful, vital statements are hidden within hot and heavy anthems about making out, having fun and staying curious. The main theme if the new album is lust, but not just in the sexual form, but about a lust for life, lust for letting loose, lust in the face of having to be a nice, polite “good girl.” As Rakel put it “A 'good girl' is not the same as a good person”.
The band describe the new album as a “hyper lusty rock and roll with a political punch, exploring the alchemy of attraction, the lust for life, embracing community and calling out the patriarchy. With a healthy dose of playfulness and fun thrown in.”
“So When You Gonna…” was one of my favourite albums of 2020 and was a riot from start to finish, and “Social Lubrication” picks up where it left off. This one is a rousing, riotous, in your face effotrt, packed with anthemic tracks. The album is packed full of post-punk lust for life, but with its under-pinning political message too, challenging the patriarchy system. Not in an overly political way, more subtle and fun, intertwined into the theme of lust and challenge for the ‘norms’ society imposes.
The opening track Kick In The Teeth is blistering and sets a great tone for the rest to follow, with it’s sweeping guitar riffs and punchy vocals. I love the poetic nature of their lyrics, and how you can visual the themes they’re expressing “The happiest time we spent was looking through a mirror,not everything has a meaning, but we tend to see things clearer. I spent so much of this youth questioning my value, Lolita’s all grown up now, who knew”. What a wonderful way of describing how we question what the world expects of us as adults !
Who Do You Wanna Be? Is an absolute belter. The structure of the track reminded me a little of The Slow Readers Club, but again the punchy political lyrics come to the fore, a real anthem which will go down a treat live I’m sure, with the kind of chorus to scream along to “ “If not you, then who?”
I think my favourite track on this album has to be the quirky and fun Hot. Fast paced and yet riotous in it’s own way, lyrically it just lists all the kind of people to date….. just not a musician ! “Don’t date a musician, they’ll think your competition. I was never competition, I was just… hot” !!! Key take away, stay clear of bartenders…. They could be a musician !
Album title track Social Lubrication confronts the misogyny of society head on as it questions the way women are treated in the music industry “They say they work with women they love, they rate them highly above. What’s it like to be a woman in music dear? You’d never ask me that if you regarded me as your peer”. It also tackles wider concerns about male behaviour towards women with the line “The bubbles in my drink dissolve and they disappear, and as I stumble through the park, although it’s dark, my ride isn’t here, but I just live over there. Push him away, say this wasn’t a meeting, this wasn’t a date, you ain’t my mate, this ain’t confusing, that’s the rear view mirror, for fuck’s sake”.
I’m taken back to their 2018 debut with I Want You which reminds me of Let’s Make Out a short full on punk anthem of the joy of raw sex. Another cracker for the live set ! It’s followed by Curious which has a softer/brighter guitar sound atop punchy bright drum beats. Another fun one about exploring bisexual /polyamorous relations “Then the confetti bomb went off on the second song - a bit premature - that’s when my eyes met yours - could it be puppy love - the 5th grade stuff”. Again the chorus is short and punchy and is just crying out to be screamed out l oud “I feel too sexy to listen to my friends”.
Honestly slows pace for a short time and has a very different vibe to it, with swirling dream like guitars and vocals before the intensity returns with the final track Orbit which rounds off the album perfectly, about two people in perfect sync, questioning if they had been linked in a past life, such as sister, brother, mother because the connect is so strong as they are literally ‘orbiting around each other’.
The album starts off with a real Kick in the Teeth rueing the adult world and it’s problems, and the album goes on to challenge misogyny and social norms , but by the end Orbit brings it back to what matters. It’s a great upbeat, positive end to the album – Love will conquer all.
Wow… what a banger !!! I loved “So When You Gonna…..” and I have to say “Social Lubrication” doesn’t disappoint. It’s playful, curious and questioning of social barriers. It’s an album born to be played live !
As Alice Go put it “Music is one of the only forms of people experiencing an emotion together in a visceral, physical, real way,”. “t's cathartic to the systemic issues that are being called out across the board in the record. Music isn't the cure, but it's the remedy. Calling the record Social Lubrication harks to that. It's the positive glue that can create solidarity and community.”
Perhaps the best line has to come from Bella Podpadec who put it like this….. “The album is speaking to systemic problems that cannot be glossed over by lube”. Enough said !
Not much to fault on this one to be honest, great tracks with their ever present quirky fun style it gets a 9.0 from LiveWire Music.
Out this Friday (9 June) you can order the album HERE.
To support the album launch, Dream Wife have confirmed details or a UK and Ireland tour in October this year, with support from Prima Queen and Ash Kenazi. The tour includes stops in Manchester 05/10, Birmingham 06/10, Bristol 07/10, Leeds 08/10, Dublin 10/10 Limerick 11/10, Galway 12/10 culminating in a headline show at London’s Electric Brixton 19/10.
Tour tickets can be purchased HERE.
