Pale Waves

After the release of their second album ‘Unwanted’ in 2022, I wasn’t sure this band could top it. ‘Unwanted’ was raw, real and gritty, but ‘Smitten’ really is superior. It felt full of anger and rage. This album feels like the band have found their inner peace and quintessential sounds. ‘Smitten’ in its entirety feels like the missing pieces of the puzzle have finally come together. It is is confident but almost exposing in a sense as the band move into this new era of music which feels like The Cure at their best resurrected, and it really is exceptional to hear.

Written between the US and UK over a two-year period, ‘Smitten’ finds the band reflecting upon their Northern roots. This new record is full of vivid, ear-wormy hooks, thwacking snares and jangly alt-pop that sounds fresh out of their home city Manchester.

‘Smitten’ kicks off with ‘Glasgow’, which was released as a single, as the opening track. ‘Glasgow’ opens with the strumming of a guitar riff that has the ‘Madchester’ scene coursing through the veins of each note. Heather’s vocals are completely dreamy, drifting listeners into a world of escapism into the hills of the highlands and as we hit the chorus “When I left you in Glasgow / I remember crying all the way home” we are transported into a vision of lost love and teen heartbreaks.

Lyrically, the record is preoccupied with past lives – some more recent than others. Heather “found herself in a headspace where she could finally breathe and reflect”, like peeling through the pages of a long-forgotten teenage diary and being surprised by what she found.

This is demonstrated beautiful in the second track ‘Not a Love Song’, and lyrically the track is complicated with potential themes of compulsory heterosexuality and hesitation, on top of these contradicting high energy riffs and a striking rhythm through the drums.

For me, my favourite track from this album has to be ‘Perfume’, which was also released as a single prior to this album’s launch. ‘Perfume’ feels like The Cure revived; a perfect LGBTQ+ love song full of warmth and intimacy which is reflected in their lyrics ‘Your perfume on my skin / Can our love just begin? / Won't you let down your guard / And walk into my arms?’. The narrative feels like a similar one to ‘18’ from their debut album, but ‘Perfume’ is self-assured and listeners are left longing to feel this kind of sheer, relentless affection for another soul.

‘I found myself writing about not just a certain time period, but my whole life from years ago,” says Heather. “When I fall in love, I fall deep, and it’s interesting to me that you can feel so fascinated and smitten with someone and then they can become a total stranger. So I feel like Smitten really summarised perfectly what I felt for others at a certain point.”

‘Kiss Me Again’ talks of failed a relationship but with lyrics full of passion and lust for the other person, so much so you want one them even though it’s doomed. ‘Hate To Hurt You’ is full of jangly, cacophonic riffs similar to a mix between George Harrison and The Smiths sound, back up a hefty beat of the drums and lyrics of packed with regret.

‘Imagination’ is pop-rock with a similar to The 1975’s music. Our closing track ‘Slow’ bursts on to the scene, unapologetically with a loud melody that strips back quickly to showcase Heather’s pristine lyrics.

Overall, this album is masterpiece – a mashup between their debut album and second but neater and exquisite to consume. I hope everyone enjoys listening to this masterpiece as much as me.