Moisturizer

Wet Leg’s debut thrived on instinct. Moisturizer, released on 11 July 2025, proves they were never just a moment. This second album does not abandon the band’s sharp-edged humour or wiry energy, but it deepens them, stretching their sound into something fuller, stranger and more emotionally exposed.

Recorded in autumn 2024 at Salvation Studios in Brighton with producer Dan Carey, Moisturizer captures a band that has properly formed. Now operating as a five-piece, the chemistry feels immediate. There is a sense of players locking in together rather than orbiting a central idea. It sounds, as some critics noted, like a real band in a room, and that shift gives the record its weight.

Where the debut thrived on deadpan detachment, Moisturizer leans into feeling. Rhian Teasdale’s writing is more personal, shaped by love and the absence of rules that come with it. Her reflections on queer relationships give the album a different emotional register, one that feels exploratory rather than declarative. It is still playful, still subversive, but there is more at stake.

That balance is clear in the singles. ‘Catch These Fists’ channels frustration into something punchy and immediate, sparked by a familiar, unwanted interruption to a night out. ‘CPR’ and ‘Davina McCall’ broaden the palette, the latter turning a cultural reference into something unexpectedly tender. Even the soppier moments are handled with a wink, never fully surrendering to sentimentality.

The album’s tone is mirrored in its visuals. The artwork, grotesque and seductive in equal measure, leans into Wet Leg’s fascination with contrast. Teasdale and Hester Chambers appear exaggerated, almost monstrous, yet oddly magnetic. It is that push and pull, between attraction and discomfort, that defines the record’s character.

Critically, Moisturizer was met with widespread acclaim, and it is easy to see why. The songs are tighter, the hooks sharper, and the band sound more confident in their contradictions. There is a looseness to the performances that suggests enjoyment rather than calculation, a band aware of their strengths and willing to lean into them.

What makes Moisturizer compelling is its sense of evolution without erasure. Wet Leg have not traded in their identity, they have expanded it. The humour remains, but it now coexists with vulnerability. The edges are still jagged, but the centre feels warmer.

Debuting at number one on the UK Albums Chart, the album confirms their place, but more importantly, it suggests longevity. This is not a band clinging to novelty. It is a band learning how to grow without losing its bite.