My Soul / Half Pint Lyrics – Dry Cleaning | from “Secret Love”

Dry Cleaning’s Secret Love is two weeks from unraveling its tangled heartstrings—January 9, 2026, via 4AD—and “My Soul / Half Pint” is the sly gut-punch that turns vacuuming into a manifesto, Florence Shaw’s deadpan drawl slicing through the mundane like a feather duster with teeth.

This third track clocks in at a breezy 3:57, but it’s pure Dry Cleaning weirdness: angular post-punk riffs that jitter like misplaced socks, backed by Tom Dowse’s spiky guitars and a rhythm section that grooves with reluctant precision. Shaw’s spoken-word poetry—her hallmark since the laundry-themed origins—unspools over Cate Le Bon’s production touch, which adds a hazy, almost psychedelic sheen without losing the band’s raw London edge. It’s indie rock with a surrealist twist, blending art-punk detachment and domestic absurdity into something that feels like a therapy session in a laundromat.

Thematically, it’s a goofball deep-dive into tidying’s double bind: that compulsive joy of imposing order on chaos, clashing hard against the soul-crushing grind of it all. Shaw confesses a love-hate with cleaning—organizing as quiet rebellion, but the act itself a gendered trap, echoing broader whispers of societal “shoulds” that women (and anyone) quietly resent. Le Bon’s involvement elevates it; her off-kilter fingerprints from albums like Reward bring a dreamier undercurrent, making the track less a rant, more a wry confession booth.

Secret Love as a whole? It’s the band’s most unguarded swing yet, an 11-track love letter to the trust that birthed them—Florence, Tom, Lewis Maynard on bass, Nick Buxton on drums—forged in those early, sweaty friendship-fueled jams. Recorded at Jeff Tweedy’s Chicago loft (a far cry from their Brixton haunts), it’s got that lived-in warmth: opener “Hit My Head All Day” struts with manipulative mind games, “Cruise Ship Designer” daydreams escape routes, while closers like “Joy” and “I Need You” peel back to raw vulnerability. No rigid concept, just Shaw’s cryptic dispatches—hidden messages in the everyday—wrapped in post-punk propulsion that rewards repeat spins. NME handed it five stars for its “unfathomable” depths, Pitchfork nodding to the seismic guitar intricacies amid the protest-folk-adjacent introspection. Singles like the lead track and November’s “Cruise Ship Designer” have already teased the vibe on TikTok, with fans stitching Shaw’s non-sequiturs into their own mundane montages.

Dry Cleaning’s hitting this milestone lean and luminous, post-Stumpwork’s 2022 introspection that cemented them as post-punk poets. Shaw’s lyricism—equal parts Patti Smith detachment and everyday absurdity—has sharpened with motherhood and band-life miles, while Le Bon’s production signals a bolder collab era. They’re no longer the underground darlings; sold-out stateside tours and festival slots (Glastonbury whispers for ’26) prove they’re evolving from niche to necessary, turning the ordinary into oblique anthems that stick.

Dive into the My Soul / Half Pint lyrics below and unpack its raw narrative. Don’t miss other Secret Love tracks for more of Dry Cleaning’s surreal post-punk vibes.