The Slugs – Wet

We love The Slugs. We’ve kind of grown up with them given they featured in our first ever set of reviews. So imagine our excitement when the new five track “Wet” EP dropped.

This time the theme of the EP is, of course, water.

As with their previous two released the recording is a little lo-fi and they’ve kept things simple with just drums, guitar and dual vocals. There is the same unshakeable confidence, sense of fun and humour (Liberty Hodes also plying her trade as a comedian). Despite having a song titled PISS IS WET, this EP displays the Slugs’ most sophisticated song writing to date.

In typical Slugs style ‘Wet’ kicks off with someone sniffing and taking a sip of water on opener Splash!, before a two note guitar hook fades in alongside a light keyboard drone, accompanied by a metronomic hi hat. The syncopated vocals are what make it though, the lyrics simply about the various ways we consume water. Although a very simple idea it becomes quite hypnotic.

What is wet? ‘PISS IS WET’, of course.

This time two chords chime along to a pounding snare and call and response vocals. Ladies Ponds might just be the highlight. That eerie keyboard drone returns while Liberty Hodes strums two chords and Phoebe Dighton Brown plays a simple marching snare. They conjure up a gorgeous vocal harmony to the lyric “Take off your jumper and another another and another, dive down deep splash around with each other.” It’s a moment of beauty that proves a counterfoil for the great vibrant chorus that is to come. “Swimming in the summer in the ladies ponds… I’ve got my factor 50 on”.

They display a sense of humour like Moldy Peaches at their best, albeit with an unmistakeable Britishness.

Do The Mollusc!!! again provides the sort of joyous nonsense we’ve come to expect from The Slugs. They urge you to “Shake your shells grow a new leg… Do the Mollusc!” then to “do” various other sea entities before, finally, to “Do the chips” of course! This inevitably collapses into laughter.

Mint Green opens with the eery high pitched drone that appears several times throughout “Wet”. The vocal harmonies are fantastic, the guitar sounds slightly out of tune and the snare is audibly reacting to vibrations in the room. This warts and all one take live recording is very much like their lyrics; “varicose veins, oh what a pain”. The Slugs are so real. They continue to embrace and comment on every day and unglamorous things like varicose veins, wearing factor 50 sun cream and, of course, eating chips. They always sound like they are having the best time and we wouldn’t want them any other way.

You may enjoy this if you like: The Moldy Peaches, Jeffrey Lewis, Dog Legs, Let’s Wrestle, The Raincoats, The Slits