The Cute Things Lyrics – Dry Cleaning | from “Secret Love”

Dry Cleaning is gearing up for their third album, Secret Love, dropping January 9, 2026, via 4AD, and The Cute Things is track nine—a spot that feels perfect for the band’s knack for turning the mundane into something quietly unsettling.

This one’s produced by Cate Le Bon, who brought the band to Black Box Studios in France’s Loire Valley after earlier sessions in Chicago with Jeff Tweedy and Dublin with Gilla Band’s rhythm section. The whole record came together through those different spaces, letting the group—Florence Shaw on spoken-word vocals, Tom Dowse on guitar, Nick Buxton on drums, Lewis Maynard on bass—build songs that feel inseparable from the room they were born in. Secret Love picks up where Stumpwork left off in 2022, pushing their post-punk into more varied territory: scratchy guitars, airy synths, funk-tinged bass, all wrapped around Shaw’s deadpan delivery that turns everyday observations into something sharper and stranger. The album’s theme circles trust—how hard it is to read intentions, how easy it is to get manipulated in subtle ways—and The Cute Things slots right into that, likely digging into the small, deceptive details that hide bigger manipulations, though full lyrics are still under wraps on most sites.

The rollout started strong in late September 2025 with the lead single Hit My Head All Day, followed by Cruise Ship Designer and Let Me Grow and You’ll See the Fruit, each with videos choreographed by Bullyache that keep the band’s visual weirdness intact. Fans could pre-save on Spotify or pre-order vinyl (black, limited apricot, or pearl/arctic exclusives) for the full 11-track lineup: it opens with Hit My Head All Day, moves through My Soul/Half Pint and the title track, hits Rocks before The Cute Things, and closes with I Need You and Joy. The band teased the vibe through rehearsals and studio shots, and the album feels like their most focused yet, born from that tight-knit creative loop.

Dry Cleaning have come a long way since New Long Leg’s breakout in 2021—three years after Stumpwork, they’re still evolving that spoken-word post-punk formula without losing the edge. Shaw’s lyrics keep that mix of absurdity and sensitivity, and with Le Bon’s production, this one promises to be their most varied and delicate record so far. They’re capping it with a big hometown show at London’s O2 Academy Brixton on April 22, 2026, which should be a killer way to bring these songs to life.

Dive into the The Cute Things lyrics below and unpack its raw narrative. Don’t miss other Secret Love tracks for more of Dry Cleaning’s off-kilter world.