Palaye RoyaleFever Dream

Already a firm fan favourite for their sharp aesthetics and gritty glitz, Palaye Royale bring a measured and matured outing on Fever Dream, their vivid and viscous fourth studio album.

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Amid the group’s forced time away from stages and unexpected seclusion during the pandemic, the end result of Fever Dream is decidedly optimistic without shedding the audaciously bold aesthetic the group have become revered for. And amidst the usual art-punk and scathing swagger lies moments of Brit pop and authentic restraint that jettisons the brothers behind the Palaye Royale moniker, Remington Leith, Sebastian Danzig and Emerson Barrett, beyond being a niche, maximalist indulgence into full-blown irresistible icons.

Opening with an acoustic Stairway To Heaven-esque intro, Fever Dream dives into Eternal Life, a sinuous anthem full of electronic beats and restrained production, closely followed by the bouncy pop snarl of No Love in LA and the towering melodics of Punching Bag. Up next, Broken showcases an emotive yet buoyant stadium-ready vibe, while Fever Dream’s true soul reveals itself on its uplifting title track. A vaudevillian, My Chemical Romance-esque ode, Fever Dream flexes Leith’s rasp and the group’s oozy craftsmanship, proving an inescapable high point on the album as Leith croons “We can be anything and everything” amid fiery guitar solos, chest-bumping choruses, and a devastatingly beautiful acoustic outro.

Fever Dream is Palaye Royale no longer rebelling without a cause, but rather finetuning their ambition into equal parts style and substance. 

Elsewhere on Fever Dream lurks creamy Brit pop charm (Line It Up featuring the husky vocals of LP), modern percolations (Toxic In You), throwback alt-rock (Wasted Sorrow), creamy anthems (Paranoid), ambient, stripped-back beauty (Oblivion) and Palaye Royale returning to their more layered sound found on previous album The Bastards on The King Of The Damned. And just in case you want more jaunt mixed with some Alice In Wonderland lore, closing track Off With The Head stomps with moments of syncopated vocals and early 2000s alt-rock energy before the album’s outro fades on an affable and upbeat note, as Leith repeats at the start of the outro: “Sooner or later we’re all gonna fade out / But not today”. It’s a theatrical yet restrained closer, and definitely a sharp shift from the more maudlin closer found on their previous full-length.

While undeniably threaded with the boisterous ambition and the “Sin Rock” undertones the group have carefully curated for over a decade, Fever Dream ultimately sheds the gloomier elements of their former releases and finds Palaye Royale still able to convey some languid punk snarl but with significantly more authentic outcomes. Fever Dream is Palaye Royale no longer rebelling without a cause, but rather finetuning their ambition into equal parts style and substance. 

STANDOUT TRACKS: Eternal Life, Fever Dream,
STICK THIS NEXT TO: My Chemical Romance, Yungblud, The Struts