Wet Leg: The rise and rise of 2022's indie-rock debut darlings

How do you become the biggest indie-rock duo in the UK? For Wet Leg, that meant dropping an insanely viral, word-of-mouth single that seemed to explode out of nowhere and ride the wave.

Indeed, Isle Of Wight natives Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers really did seem to come out of nowhere last year with Chaise Longue; an infectious slice of sarcastic post-punk that was littered with in-jokes and references to Mean Girls.

It was their first official release as Wet Leg, since forming in 2019 and signing with indie label Domino (Arctic Monkeys, Georgia, Blood Orange). It almost immediately put them on every critic's radars - including Official Charts - Wet Leg were one of our Artists To Watch for 2022.

And now the ripple that Chaise Longue started has grown into a fast-approaching tsunami; Wet Leg's eponymous debut album is on its way to top the Official Albums Chart in its first week.

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Of course, the amount of press that Teasdale and Chambers have attracted since their breakthrough has made some question the validity of their innocuous rise. But these criticisms tend to miss the point about Wet Leg in the first place - that the duo's creations were and still are made for their own amusement, and no-one else's. 

Wet Leg do not care if you don't get the joke - they didn't write it for you anyway, as they told the Independent last week: "Music is so funny [...] we were just trying to have a good time [writing Chaise Longue] and that's OK."

Indeed, you can feel and hear this spirit throughout their debut album. Wet Leg's approach to post-punk indie-rock is not as self-serious as it seems on the surface. Tracks like Ur Mum, Being In Love and Don't Wanna Go Out may play by the rules sonically, but lyrically they zone in Teasdale and Chambers just...having a screaming good time (literally - in one of the tracks you can hear some scream therapy).

And the numbers themselves do not lie - Wet Leg are a phenomenon. Not only is their self-titled debut out-selling nearest competition Father John Misty by an amazing 4:1, breakout single Chaise Longue is also showing healthy growth chart-wise.

According to Official Charts Company data, Chaise Longue has chart sales in the UK totalling over 56,000, including 5.6 million streams  - 2.6 million of those from just this year alone. Even though the track hasn't yet charted inside the Top 40, it did enter the Official Trending Chart for the first time ever this week.

For Wet Leg, their first album debuting at Number 1 would be a true sign that they're an indie-rock force to be reckoned with. And perhaps better than that, proof that despite label posturing and press hype, they did it entirely for themselves, just trying to make their friends laugh.