Music > Album Reviews

Pale Waves - My Mind Makes Noises

11/09/18

Mancunian bunch Pale Waves’ is easily the most hotly anticipated British debut album of 2018. Since singer/guitarist Heather Baron Gracie and drummer Ciara Doran founded the indie-pop outfit four years ago, they’ve been taken under the wing of one Matty Healy of The 1975 who signed them up as label mates at Dirty Hit (which also counts Wolf Alice among its ranks). A run of glistening singles have followed, each more buzzed-about than the first, with play counts and video views running into the millions. Simply put, they’re on their way to the top and there’s not a lot standing in their way.

‘My Mind Makes Noises’ is the product of constant reinvention, an unusual amount for such a young group; pre-Healey, the band were on their own, far less interesting trajectory that saw them dropping oceanic guitar tracks that were sweet to listen to, but didn’t pack half the punch of their newer cuts. As such, a lot of the record’s focus is on its shimmery, dance-oriented production as heard on Came In Close and One More Time, the latter dusted with hand-claps which are oh, so hot right now.

Make no mistake, Heather is the star of the show. It’s her stories of lost romance we hear on Loveless Girl, of longing for escape on the chunky, percussion-led Drive. Her distinct vocal may sound whiney to an unfamiliar ear, but listen closely and her nuances enrich musings about, in short, the pain, confusion, and sheer overwhelming everything of what it’s like to be a young adult. Though her words are exclusively youthful, her influences hark back to another time; The Cure are the band’s collective god-tier favourite, and ‘…Noises’ is rife with the fluidity of those 80s guitar melodies, especially on turbo-banger Kiss which just about gets away with a Boys Don’t Cry-esque intro.

The album stretches out for 14 tracks, distinctly picking up towards the end thanks to the ever-infectious Television Romance, but its duration does make it painfully clear what’s killer and what’s filler (cough, When Did I Lose It All, She). Nevertheless, for a band whose early days were mired with commentary on how ‘it all sounds the same’, Pale Waves have done well in forging an exceptionally passionate, dramatic statement leaving them perfectly poised for inevitable world domination.

8/10