This is rather marvellous. Youth Valley are a new shoegaze/postpunk band who come from Athens, like R.E.M. and The B-52s. But not the one in Georgia.

They’re from the one in Greece with the Parthenon and Acropolis and all that. And to prove it, the first song from their first album, is about a Greek poet called Jean Moréas.

On some of songs the jangling guitars and melancholy vocals of maudlin vocalist and lyricist Joseph Powell sound very like another maudlin vocalist and lyrics from Manchester.

So do some of the song titles, such as I Don’t Want To Go Out With You, Veronica – a collaboration with composer/electronic musician Serafim Tsotsonis.

Thankfully, Powell seems to have dialled down the Morrissey influence on this one, while acknowledging that The Smiths (and The Cure and DIIV) were among his inspirations when forming the band in 2019 with guitarist George Piaditis, drummer Dean Jola and bassisst/producer Alex Bolpasis.

Their first release was a self-titled EP of three songs presented as conversations between the singer and his adolescent self. So far, so Mozza, but the hazy atmosphere, dark jangle and melancholy atmospheres become denser on their more noise-washed debut album, Lullabies For Adults (great title!).

A chiming lead guitar line and insistent repeated bass note start things off on this tribute to the 19th-Century Greek poet and essayist born Ioannis A. Papadiamantopoulos, before Powell brings his brooding vocal to the fore with lines Robert Smith might have written himself: “Tired of using my head/Trying to prove there’s a meaning/Feeling the weight of the pen.”

The whole album is well worth investigating, especially the seven-minute centrepiece Pegasus which envelops itself (and the listener) in noise before a returning chorus of: “Dive into this world of never-ending dreams.”

It’s sound advice… and you can do so right here: