Dry Cleaning has announced the release of their third studio album, ‘Secret Love’, set to be released on 9 January 2026 via 4AD. The London-based post-punk band has accompanied this news with the dropping of their title single, ‘Hit My Head All Day”.
The lead track arrives as a poignant opening to what the band has described as an album centred on misinformation, control, and the manipulation of bodies and minds. Lead vocalist, Florence Shaw, comments, ‘Hit My Head All Day’ seeks to catch the insidious influence of prevailing disinformation, commenting, “there are powerful people that seek to influence our behaviour… It’s easy to fall under the influence of a sinister stranger who seems like a friend”.
The upcoming album ‘Secret Love’, following their last release in 2022 with ‘Stumpwork’, will showcase 11 new tracks, including the ahead-of-release single. The album itself was recorded over multiple locations, spanning Jeff Tweedy’s Chicago studio The Loft, to Dublin’s Sonic Studios, and was produced by musician Cate Le Bon in France at Black Box studio. A glimpse at the album’s body of work includes titles like ‘Cruise Ship Designer’, ‘Rocks’, and the intriguingly suggestive ‘Secret Love (Concealed in a Drawing of a Boy)’.
The release of the band’s third album marks the purposeful combination of ambition and care. Shaw and the bandmates have travelled to various locations and selected specific collaborating members in order to curate the finished project, working primarily in England with members of ‘Gilla Band’, the likes of Alan Duggan and Daniel Fox, before heading to France to finalise the project with Le Bon in France. The underlying intent throughout the creative process maintains focus on their signature blend of new sound and distinctive lyricism, contributing to their global profile.
Dry Cleaning, along with this announcement of new music, continues to embark on their 2025 tour. Upcoming global dates in Brooklyn, Madrid, London, and Barcelona are likely to hear the first live performances of ‘Hit My Head All Day’, ahead of ‘Secret Love’ full arrival.
The announcement, however, also marks a clear thematic evolution for Dry Cleaning, as they continue to push their core investment in post-punk instrumentation in a new direction. The band’s earlier works, ‘New Long Leg’ (2021) and ‘Stumpwork’ (2022), have cemented their mastery of the genre, established primarily through Shaw’s observational yet unsettling vocals. With ‘Secret Love’, it appears the band are determined to continue this trajectory into a further commentary of their own sonic expansion.
With the release of “Hit My Head All Day”, alongside the prospects of their album release, Dry Cleaning have set the tone for their future music: internally uneasy, introspective, and with a sharp awareness of a media-saturated world.
With January drawing closer, listeners and critics will have both eyes and ears set on the release date. ‘Secret Love’ on the horizon promises a tension between restraint and unease, with their previewing track ‘Hit My Head All Day’ signalling the grip Dry Cleaning have on the post-punk landscape.
