‘We're just country bumpkins!'

Wet Leg’s feelgood anthems have beguiled their fans. But, after playing for fun and turning down record labels, do they finally feel they are a ‘real band’?

How does a song by an unknown band get to listen to 6.5m times? It was hard enough to determine in the olden days, before streaming existed, when we still said “popular” instead of “viral”; it is absolutely baffling now. If anyone knew, Facebook would have written an algorithm for it. That hasn’t stopped critics twisting and turning to account for the success of Chaise Longue, by the Isle of Wight duo Wet Leg, which was hotly followed by their astronomically successful follow-up singles, Wet Dream and Too Late Now. They haven’t even released an album yet.

Is it because they are, as one reviewer put it, witty and sexy, and indie rock normally isn’t? Everyone loves them, from Florence Welch to Iggy Pop. Is it because they have been compared to the likes of Violent Femmes and Björk? They have certainly unleashed an (often contradictory) avalanche of they-remind-me-ofs, not because they are derivative; but because they put everyone in a good mood.