Signed to Hidden Bay Records, Walk Home Drunk is the name of Toulouse-based comic book artist and Docks guitarist Daniel Selig’s solo project. Written, recorded and produced over the course of several years, ‘Time Flies’ (order via Bandcamp) has a fitting title and a wide range of influences are incorporated into its mellow and mesmerising sound.
The opener ‘Finish Last’ has an Alex G-style opening although Daniel’s vocals reminded us of Damon Albarn as he discusses waiting 30 years for something and starts to examine his own behavior in a self-depreciating way: ‘There’s winners and losers and we don’t have what it takes’. There are many relatable, everyday observations in the lyrics – ‘Some people buy their tickets months in advance. When you buy them at the station, you end up paying more’ – while the instrumentation has a lovely lightness of touch. ‘On Fire’ follows and this finds Daniel diving first into a shoegaze-meets-jangly indie sound before veering into something more akin to what you’d find on a Kinsella album – complete with clattering drums. ‘Urgh’ starts with repetition of the words ‘Don’t think it’s getting much easier, don’t think it’s getting much easier now’ before morphing into something more considered and fuzzy.
‘First Swim’ is an enthralling slice of DIY pop with layers of drawn-out and goosebump-inducing hooks, think a bedroom Explosions in the Sky, before the EP draws to a close with ‘Anti-Summer’. Daniel declares ‘My head is like a waterfall’ against a background of subtle electronic drumbeats and Arab Strap-style atmospherics before turning his attention to the season – and people’s reactions to it: ‘Everyone is waiting, everyone is complaining, about the heat, about the sound about the fucking mosquitos, anti-summer forever’.
You’ll want to go on this journey with Walk Home Drunk…
