Social Lubrication

by Dream Wife

Overview

Dream Wife enjoyed a critical and commercial peak with their 2020 breakthrough album So When You Gonnaâ?¦ that most notably included a place in the Top 20 of the U.K. Albums chart. However, the album's release during the darkest days of the COVID-19 global pandemic meant a piece of their success was missing: Alice Go, Rakel Mjoell, and Bella Podpadec couldn't tour in support of So When You Gonnaâ?¦ the way they wanted to. Instead, they channeled that raw energy into their next album. Produced by Go and mixed by Alan Moulder and Caesar Edmunds (who have worked with Dream Wife heroes like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and contemporaries like Wet Leg), Social Lubrication puts the trio's rock first. While they didn't exactly downplay their heavy side on So When You Gonnaâ?¦, they may have rounded off its edges a bit, making the onslaught of tracks like the fittingly named opening salvo "Kick in the Teeth" that much more potent. From its feedback and whomping kick drums to Mjoell's knife-edged vocals, it's the perfect expression of Social Lubrication's unapologetic stance. Dream Wife are more confidently plain-spoken than ever before in calling out injustices, oppressors, and passive bystanders. That includes themselves and their listeners on "Who Do You Wanna Be?," a crash course in leftist politics and a reminder that actions speak louder than words with the urging refrain "If not you/Then who?/If not now/Then when?" Though they deliver advice with their trademark sense of humor on the Bikini Kill-esque "Hot (Don't Date a Musician)" -- which makes sure to include the "hot theys in bands" as well as the hot girls and boys -- it doesn't override the old-school punk feeling of calls to arms on Social Lubrication. Nowhere is this clearer than on the title track's churning litany of sexist moments big and small ("What's it like to be a woman in music, dear?/You'd never ask me that if you saw me as a peer") or on "Leech," a frank, harrowing takedown of music industry parasites that speaks for generations of female and non-binary artists when Mjoell implores "just have some fucking empathy" in a voice that's alternately infuriated and exhausted. Though Dream Wife spends most of the album fighting the good fight, they round out Social Lubrication with love songs that pack just as much of a punch. The sweetly scuzzy romance of "Mascara" and innocent debauchery of "Curious" build on the flair for open-hearted guitar pop they showed on their last album, but "Honestly"'s seductive dream pop reveals entirely new realms of their sound. It's just another example of how Dream Wife's success has made them the opposite of complacent: The more acclaim they get, the louder they shout about injustice and the farther they push their boundaries. Social Lubrication is the work of a band that believes music can actually make a difference, and in Dream Wife's hands, it's a feeling that's contagious. ~ Heather Phares

Product Details

Release Date:	06/09/2023
Label:	Lucky Number
UPC:	0689492217013
Rank:	105360

Tracks

1. Kick In The Teeth
2. Who Do You Wanna Be?
3. Hot (Don't Date A Musician)
4. Social Lubrication
5. Mascara
6. Leech
7. I Want You
8. Curious
9. Honestly
10. Orbit

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Dream Wife   Primary Artist

Technical Credits

Vinny Wood   Engineer
Alan Moulder   Mixing
Matt Colton   Mastering
Alex Greaves   Engineer
Caesar Edmunds   Mixing
Harriet Brown   Portraits
Maisie Cousins   Artwork
Alex Paveley   Composer
Alice Gough   Composer,Producer
Isabella Podpadec   Composer
Rakel Mjoell Leifsdottir   Composer,Lyricist
Stewart Baxter   Design
Tom Herbert   Mixing Engineer
Megan Lama   Engineer
Matt Peel   Engineer,Producer