ALBUM REVIEW: My Drunken Haze 'My Drunken Haze'

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Hailing from Athens, Greek five-piece My Drunken Haze fuse smooth neo-psychedelia with a spirited 60s Garage vibe. We’re talking intoxicating melodies along the lines of ‘I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night’ and ‘Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar)’. Their self-titled debut, produced by King Elephant, is due to drop on 3^rd November via Inner Ear Records.

At the centre of this hedonistic, dreamy affair stands a woman ‘in search of love, longing, separation and redemption, against a backdrop of daydreaming, drugs and the hot sand of a summer beach.’ This theme seeps into every song, as the freethinking protagonist turns beneath “starless skies” admitting “I wanna dream again” and emptily wonders “Where is yesterday?”

The striking harmonized vocals of ‘Carol Wait’ and the wild, wayward essence of ‘Gambling Woman’ open the album, with Singer Matina Sous Peau crying “Fuck it, I’m going to fall in love” as guitar lines hack through the mix like buzz saws. The stabbed chords and subtle catchiness of ‘Yellow Balloons’ is followed by the sunny sway of ‘Girl Who Looks Like A Boy’; with the somewhat uninspired lyrics being overlooked as the track takes a euphoric, transformative turn.

The latter half of the record continues on this upward ascent into the phantasmal ether. On standout ‘Paper Planes’ Matina adopts the effortless allure of Beach House’s Victoria Legrand and penultimate track ‘I Wanna Dream Again’ takes on an Real Estate quality, as sweet-sounding riffs overlap. It is the sudden shift from unworldly dream-pop to fuzz-heavy, aggressive Garage that makes My Drunken Haze such a bracing listen. On the whole it’s a stupor you should seriously consider slipping into sometimes soon.