Background and recording
Moisturizer was produced by Dan Carey, who had previously worked with the band on their self-titled debut album, Wet Leg (2022). Moisturizer was recorded in the autumn of 2024 at Salvation Studios in Brighton. Reflecting on the studio environment, frontwoman Rhian Teasdale noted: "[The album] was recorded around Halloween. We decorated the studio and went in there with loads of cobwebs and fake spiders and stuff, so we love Halloween now." [2]
The five-piece band entered the studio with sixteen songs ready to record, with Teasdale noting: "We did drop a few of the punchier ones, because I think it is really important to have that kind of dynamic balance and ebb and flow to make an album sound balanced. It's good to have little palette cleansers. After touring for so long, it was really important to us that the second album would feel good to play live." [2]
Writing and composition
The five-piece band began writing Moisturizer in early 2024, while staying together in an AirBnB in Southwold, Suffolk. [3] Frontwoman Rhian Teasdale praised the collective nature of the writing sessions stating: "It's helped so much, having the five of us writing together, because sometimes I'd go down in the morning and be like: 'I just can't. I don't have anything to give today, nothing sounds like music.' And [bass guitarist] Ellis [Durand] would just be like: 'Don't worry about it, dude.'" [3]
During the writing and recording process, Teasdale's lyrics were influenced by falling in love: "I feel like when you're writing an album, it is like a diary entry or a snapshot in time of where you are. And on a very personal level, it felt important for me to write love songs to my partner, who is not a man — they're non-binary. It feels so different. But I think writing the songs is me just exploring and figuring out how I felt about love. And yeah, I just think queer love in particular is just so interesting to me, because there's no blueprint for it. In the heteronormative sphere, there's so many movies and so many books and, in the media, it's all very straight-leaning. I feel like there are no rules in a queer relationship. There are no rules, no kind of preconceived things that you've subconsciously absorbed along the way — it all gets rewritten when you are in a queer relationship, I think." [2]
The album's first single, "Catch These Fists", was influenced by Teasdale receiving unwanted attention from men during a night out: "I was just out with my friends, as is so often the case. And it's not that the night was a write-off. These situations happen all the time, where you're very clearly out in a very insular circle, dancing with your friends, being silly, and for that to be obnoxiously interrupted by some person trying to pick you up, it's a very common occurrence, and very, very obnoxious. I think I'm conditioned to be so polite about things, but that particular night, I was not very polite." [2]
The album's fourth track and third single, "Davina McCall", is named after the English television presenter, Davina McCall: "It's a really soppy love song. Me and my partner were watching Big Brother , and I know [McCall] isn't presenting the new one, but it made me think of watching Big Brother as a teenager, and how iconic she was, and that catchphrase: 'I'm coming to get you.' When we were first starting to play shows, she tagged us in a post and she was at a show with a Wet Leg t-shirt on. We were all obviously super-stoked." [3]
The track, "Jennifer's Body", is named after the 2009 comedy horror film, Jennifer's Body , directed by Karyn Kusama: "When we were writing the album at this house in the countryside, we spent the evenings watching a lot of horror films, and Jennifer's Body was one of them. I think I'd watched it when I was a teenager, as someone who thought they were straight. Then seeing it again now, I appreciated it a lot more, obviously. There is this lesbian storyline that's just one of the stories running through it; it's not the story. I think it's a bit more common now to have films with queer romance where that is kind of secondary to the lead storyline, and I think it just really obviously resonated with me a lot more now than I did when I was a teenager. [2]
Written and fronted by guitarist Hester Chambers, the track, "Don't Speak", was influenced by Chambers' longterm relationship with guitarist Josh Mobaraki. [3]
Critical reception
Upon release, Moisturizer was met with critical acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which aggregates scores from mainstream critics, Moisturizer has an average score of 84 based on 19 reviews, indicating "critical acclaim". [7] Reviewing the album for Clash , Richard Bowes called the album "punchier, prettier, and more playfully perverse" and said it will "undoubtedly help Wet Leg retain their place as one of Britain's most unique bands". [8]
Jamie Wilde of The Skinny said "Moisturizer oozes confidence and Wet Leg continue to play to their strengths in style". [12] Writing for The Guardian , Alexis Petridis wrote "the songs are supremely punchy, the tunes contagious: Moisturizer is a blast". [9] Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone said the album "keeps everything fast and frisky". [11] Reviewing the album for Slant , Jeremy Winograd said the band sounded like a "real live rock band playing in a room together" and noted "how much fun they sound like they're having on Moisturizer". [13]
Writing for Pitchfork , Aimee Cliff labelled Moisturizer a "near-reinvention" of the band's image compared to their debut, featuring a "meatier, more expansive sound" and an emotionality suffused "with all the anxious joy of second adolescence". Cliff's review concludes by noting that the record displays "the staying power of a band that will outlast a sense of novelty", enabling them to provide nuance to the "brazen humor" they broke through with. [10]
