Dry Cleaning have shared a new single, ‘Joy’. You can listen to it below.
- READ MORE: Dry Cleaning on ‘Stumpwork’ and playing Grace Jones’ Meltdown Festival: “She’s such a hero”
The song is the latest preview of the South London post-punk band’s third studio album, ‘Secret Love’, which is released this Friday (January 9) via 4AD. Pre-order/pre-save here.
For ‘Joy’, the lyrics were pieced together from adverts in Virginia Tech University’s ‘History Of Food And Drink’ archive. The track “serves as a compassionate coach to those in desperate need of positivity and kindness”.
It also provides an “optimistic sign-off” on ‘Secret Love’, delivering the hopeful words: “Don’t give up on being sweet.”
Despite referring to the “horrorland” and “destruction” of current times, the single assures the listener that we can “build a cute harmless world” for the future.
Frontwoman Florence Shaw explained: “Recently I’ve felt pessimistic about the world. The influence of what they call ‘the manosphere’, the genocide against Palestinians continuing despite huge protests, the rise of the racist Reform party in the UK, the promotion of AI in art and music.
“I wanted to try and stoke my drive to stay positive and spread softness and compassion. The wishes in the song have a naive quality.”
‘Joy’ arrives with an official BULLYACHE-choreographed video, starring Dry Cleaning guitarist Tom Dowse.
“We were looking to get away from the longer form, narrative and impressionistic confines of a typical music video and give ourselves, friends and fans a way to respond to the music in a more expressive way that feels personal,” he said.
“We’ve seen the vastly different ways people behave at our shows – pogoing singalongs, full wig-outs, lone figures inhabiting the sound in their own private universe.
“With that in mind, we asked BULLYACHE to design a set of moves to each song on ‘Secret Love’ as a starting point for ourselves and others to mimic or interpret them in a fun and idiosyncratic way, regardless of technical ability.”
‘Joy’ follows on from the group’s previous singles ‘Hit My Head All Day’, ‘Cruise Ship Designer’ and ‘Let Me Grow And You’ll See The Fruit’.
The imminent ‘Secret Love’ – the follow-up to 2022’s ‘Stumpwork’ – recently featured on NME’s most anticipated album releases of 2026 list.
Dry Cleaning will showcase the record when they tour across the UK, Europe and North America this year, after playing some intimate UK outstore dates this month. The band are also set to perform at Latitude 2026 in July.
Find any remaining tickets here (UK/Ireland), here (Europe) and here (North America).
Shaw wrote ‘Secret Love’ in various practice rooms with her bandmates – Dowse, drummer Nick Buxton and bassist Lewis Maynard – with production coming from Cate Le Bon (Deerhunter, Devendra Banhart, Wilco, Horsegirl).
Last summer, Dry Cleaning supported The Maccabees at their All Points East 2025 reunion show.
Speaking to NME previously about ‘Stumpwork’, Dowse said: “I think there’s more space in it. When you do the first one, every take you do you’re anxious, like, ‘This has to be the one’. When you do the second [album], you realise it doesn’t have to be the one – you just do your thing and then try something.
“Sometimes it gets on [the album], sometimes it doesn’t. I guess you just put yourself under a bit less pressure, and that made a big difference.”
