Only in Your Wet Dreams: A Double Feature on Snow Wife & Wet Leg

Skydiving off of a building. Skinny dipping with your best friend. Committing arson in the dead of night. Have you done any of these actions that I cannot legally condone? No? Well, neither have I. This, however, is what I believe fantasy to be all about: allowing oneself a chance to follow their own world of risky daydreams, and that is exactly the mission of Snow Wife. 

Emily Snow, known under her artist persona as “Snow Wife” is an up-and-coming dance-pop musician who exploded with her single “American Horror Show.” Her signature raspy voice and magnetic dance skills were quick to captivate online audiences. After teasing fans with snippets for months on end, she is finally back and pounding the stage with the fresh new track “Wet Dream.”

Followed up by a music video one week later, “Wet Dream” is an electric dance party in what appears to be the middle of the desert. As motorcycles and cowboy hats merge into one another, Snow Wife urges us to take a risk under the setting sun and play spin the bottle in the backseat. The production of the song is incredible — wild and free — with each sonic layer pulling you into paradise. It starts with a scratchy hook that splices between different pitches, introducing clear vocals and flirty lyrics springing across a bouncy rhythm. The hook reappears in the first chorus, only this time with less of an airy sound and more of a muffled, round touch. With an addictive rap section and plenty of reverb, Snow Wife’s voice feels like it has been slathered in a grainy filter, her husky tone working to counterpoint the underwater bass that longs to run you down. When you have barely managed to stumble back to your place at night, the second chorus hits and the game of spin the bottle has finally begun.

Photo taken from onestowatch.com

Prior to becoming a musician, Snow Wife was training to become a touring dancer which is evident in her career as a singer. Her moves are fluid yet sharp as she plays with elastic textures and confident expressions in tune to her sound. Performing with her dancer friends, the audience is given the chance to familiarize themselves with the dancers seen throughout all her music videos, transforming her story into a full-town rodeo. In each character, each persona, there is no lack of individual color as they kick up sand with their cowboy boots, dirty dancing into the dark.

As a queer woman, Snow Wife holds representation close to her heart. The dancers and love interests in her music videos appear regardless of gender. In “Wet Dream” specifically, Snow Wife makes a point to wear clothing from many queer-owned brands. In older songs like “GLOW” and “All Night” the party scene continues to include multiple sets of pronouns and unspecified queer relationships, something refreshing to find in dance music.

Compared to her past releases such as “F*CK” and “Hit It”, “Wet Dream” is a little less sex and a little more temptation. Higher tones and Y2K reminiscent fuzzy camera shots capture the anticipation of living not for the day, not for the hour, but for the sole second in which you can simply feel alive. With each release, Snow Wife never forgets to let her rough voice drip in bright, hardcore ecstasy. She makes it clear that being the life of the party means living it up to your fullest. 

Photo taken from The New York Times

As I was searching for Snow Wife, I chanced upon another song sporting the same name: “Wet Dream” by Wet Leg, a British Indie-Rock Duo. With Rhian Teasdale on lead vocals and rhythm guitar and Hester Chambers on lead guitar and backing vocals, their puzzle pieces perfectly complete each other. In a promise to never take themselves too seriously, their lyrics are what my college counselor would have gently described as “quirky”. You’ll see what I mean when you listen to their first hit “Chaise Lounge”: I went to school and I got a degree…I went to school and I got the big D followed by Is your muffin buttered? Would you like us to assign someone to butter your muffin?

In Wet Leg’s song “Wet Dream,” they pulled me in with their funky, lobster-claw filled music video and melodically ruffled innuendos. Teasdale’s voice is something you may almost expect to hear in a folk song, with squeaky reaches and curving undertones when she repeats “beam me up”. You’re quick to find yourself strapped down to your seat, bounding down the long highway as your car is steered by a groovy bass guitar that greedily bends between pit stops. The vocals are crisp, but what gives them their flair is the layers of backing vocals that whisper gently, floating into each ear. In Harry Styles’s cover on BBC Radio, his vocals take on more of a bronze rumbling, country-like hue. This may be my favorite Harry Styles performance, but it too is pulled together by the velvety female backing vocals.

The lyrics, I was in your wet dream driving in the car… you’re touching yourself, touching yourself may paint a provocative image. However, this is actually a breakup song inspired by the intrusive texts sent to her by Teasdale’s ex-boyfriend. Wet Leg responds against his obscenities, declaring what makes you think you’re good enough to think about me when you’re touching yourself? The lyrics illustrate the protagonist as someone fully aware of their worth and independence, but additionally as someone who joins in on the thrill and indulges in excitement only by their own accord, not for the sake of the one who calls for them: count me in – three, two, one, let’s begin.

While they may transcend genres, both artists are tied together through their titles and messaging. They each take control over the often-taboo subject of sex and spin it to fit their individual storylines, whether that be through dream-like queer escapism and partying hard through the night, or by demonstrating one’s sense of agency in choosing to give into their own inhibitions. Sex and sexuality work as a medium of creation for each artist, illustrating a world that is ultimately not made to fulfill others, but to fulfill themselves.

P.S. Oh also, I lied in the introduction! But I’ll keep the answer locked away in my own dreams 🙂 

Article by: Jenai Johns-Peterson