19. August 2021 By Walter Price 0

…more than friends, BLEACH LAB Real Thing

Bleach Lab – Real Thing is available at Bandcamp, Spotify, Deezer.

Do you miss those lush post-punk/new wave lullabies that once soundtracked our every romantic notion? Songs by The Motels, Til’ Tuesday or maybe even, Missing Persons? Awe, well, this is now and to our old school delight, the new single “Real Thing” from London’s Bleach Lab is as much in the present as it is dipping its vibes into the hallowed past.

Without giving its perspective away, the lyrics traverse the choppy waters of being friends to moving towards more than…

Your body is the ocean
I could fill it up with words I’ve spoken

I really wanna see you again
I wanna be more than friends, more than friends
Maybe we could make it work
Promise I won’t get hurt, get hurt

You’re in my head, I will let you in
As long as it’s the real thing
Cause I could never settle for feeling second best again
But I wanna feel something

Lyrics are subjective once they’re set free, so let’s talk about that subtle jangle driving this indelible track along. After I tell you that production was handled by the incompatible Stephen Street, a certain chill of Of Course! will travel the length of your spine.

During the years just after Siouxsie and the Banshees, Hüsker Dü, and the like paved the way, Street cemented the staying power of the post-punk genre with his seminal work with The Smiths, Blur, and even a bit of the nearly unsung The Mighty Lemon Drops. And his style has been emulated ever since. And having the real deal on “Real Thing” takes this single to places that’ll have deep-rooted fans twisting with overwhelming approval of this dream-pop beauty.

And you can stream the past-is-the-present “Real Thing” and see its film, brilliantly directed by Eli Hart, now at the GTC.