DREAM WIFE - Social Lubrication - Lucky Number


London-based trio Dream Wife – vocalist Rakel Mjöll (she/her), guitarist Alice Go (she/her), bassist Bella Podpadec (they/them) – share their electrifying third album today. Social Lubrication, to be released via Lucky Number on June 9th, is an entirely self-written and self-produced album, mixed by heavyweight duo Alan Moulder (Nine Inch Nails, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Killers, Depeche Mode) and Caesar Edmunds (Wet Leg, Beach House). The album finds the band once again playfully tackling big subjects like bodily autonomy, dismantling the patriarchy and using your platform for the greater good, while truly translating the visceral nature of their riotous live shows to tape for the first time.

 

Social Lubrication, in the band's words, is “Hyper lusty rock and roll with a political punch, exploring the alchemy of attraction, the lust for life, embracing community and calling out the patriarchy. With a healthy dose of playfulness and fun thrown in.”

 

Highlights include "Who Do You Wanna Be?” about their takes on capitalism and faux-activism, the dance-rock “Orbit,” the cheeky “Hot (Don’t Date A Musician)”, “Leech” a rock-heavy call to arms for empathy, and the disco-leaning title track "Social Lubrication", which serves as a rally against the patriarchy as they call out unsolicited advice and gendered violence. “Exhausted. Done with being polite, done with sugar coating, placating, and pandering to patriarchal bullshit. Wanting to just exist, in this body without being pigeon-holed or judged for the bodies we exist in. Do the job well. Show up. Not play other people's games. You can’t fix something rotten to the core - we need revolution not reform,” note the band on the track.

 

Dream Wife have come a long way since their 2018 self-titled debut. Their last album, So When You Gonna… smashed the Official UK Top 20 album charts (the only indie album recorded and produced by all women at the time to do so), and earned them universal praise and countless sold-out shows. Alongside their accolades, however, Dream Wife have always advocated for upholding the community on a truly ground level and paying it forward. Proceeds from direct digital sales of So When You Gonna… went to Black Minds Matter and Gendered Intelligence. In 2021, the band released a megamix for Rainbow Mind, a mental health charity for LGBTQIA people, with contributions from Shirley Manson, The Big Moon, Big Joanie and Girli among others.

 

Following an explosive return stateside for a packed SXSW earlier this year, Dream Wife, known for their powerful live shows, will play a string of U.S. dates this Fall, including Brooklyn, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and more

 

September 15 - Brooklyn, NY, USA @ Brooklyn Made

September 17 - Portland, OR, USA @ Mississippi Studios

September 18 - Seattle, WA, USA @ Barboza

September 20 - San Francisco, CA, USA @ Bottom Of The Hill

September 21 - Los Angeles, CA, USA @ Zebulon

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"New wave structure meets punk blatancy and 21st-century gender fluency”

- New York Times

 

"[Dream Wife] combine sticky pop flourishes and bruising sounds with brazen self-assurance....extending the continuum of uncompromising feminist musical statements with refreshing directness.” - NPR Music

 

"one of London's most exciting live acts, combining a punk snarl with brazen classic rock aesthetics...poppier than anything the band have tried before, nodding to Blondie and returning to the girlband melodies of the mid-'90s." - The FADER

"Dream Wife just want to dismantle the patriarchy. The U.K. art punks make music that’s roiling with feminist rage and Spice Girls attitude" – Rolling Stone

 

"The girl gang proving there’s force in femininity.”- Dazed