Album Review Pale Waves – My Mind Makes Noises
It’s been a massive summer for rising phenomenon Pale Waves. The band has found themselves on major festival stages around the world including spotlights at Barn on the Farm, Reading and Leeds, Summer Sonic and Lollapalooza, merely warm-up gigs for their insanely massive headlining tour coming in the next few months including a late September stop in Birmingham. Along with time on stage Pale Waves also has an exciting release, their debut album My Mind Makes Noises. Available now for pre-order, the album officially drops the 14th of September and let me tell you, it is one not to miss!
Creating a striking tapestry of sound My Mind Makes Noises mixes the gothic electronic pop sound that has come to typify Pale Waves with moments of pure bliss and contemplation, a mixture that is profound in its sonic and emotional perfection.
Established fans of Pale Waves will be excited to know that while the album is a new exploration of sound, it is also filled with the iconic records that have come to typify Pale Waves sound. A mixture of eccentric pop, 80s synth heavy beats, and pure giddy pleasure, songs like opening track ‘Eighteen,’ ‘Came in Close,’ ‘Loveless Girl,’ ‘One More Time,’ ‘Black,’ and ‘TV Romance’ dot the album. Each song mixes in different levels of bright pop and heavy synth, swirling sonic magic that gives the album an overall dance vibe. Effortless pop punk, the songs are candy coated sweetness, punctuated by lyrics that circumvent love, loss and life. With notes of frivolity and glee they are an uplifting flower in full bloom.
My Mind Makes Noises is not all pop punk perfection, Pale Waves weaves together the uptempo tunes with a myriad of interesting nuanced sound. With cascading instrumentals and bombastic blasts of energy Pale Waves produces a handful of true anthematic tracks. ‘There’s a Honey’ balances massive instrumental moments with instrumental voids, creating an intoxicating dynamic that is at both times energetic and contemplative, anthematic but quiet. Back to back mid album songs ‘Red’ and ‘Kiss’ continue the big sound theme, hints of frivolity mixed into the powerhouse punches of sound. In a favourite from the album, record ‘Drive’ encapsulates this anthemic style that permeates Pale Waves album. ‘Drive,’ with its tempo shifting and reflective lyrical content, is an epic summer road trip song that will no doubt be stuck in your brains for a lifetime.
In a maturation of sound Pale Waves mixes these massive records with lighter tunes, giving the audience a full range of emotional pulls that truly reflect the highs and lows of life. With its stripped emotional sombreness, ‘Noises’ is a deeply resounding track that seemingly reflects on complications of life. Melodramatic ‘When Did I Lose it All’ and ‘She’ mixes tempered synth heavy base with emotive vocals, breaking the tension of reality and creating a dreamscape of sound and emotions.
The true standout however for the more contemplative slower paced songs has to be album ending ‘Karl,’ ‘Karl’ is a slap in the face, an ending that is so heartfelt and vulnerable, transcendent in its perfection that it literally stops time. With an almost singer songwriter sensibility the record is a penned love letter to a lost loved one, a heartbreaking reflection on life that reflects the tenuous fragility of life. Evolving into a poignant end the record wraps up the high energy album in the most human way possible, such a masterpiece that it is hard to express.
Pale Waves My Mind Makes Noises is an awe inspiring debut album that truly encompasses the bands sound while displaying their sonic and lyrical genius, a genius that will push the band forward into the stratosphere of stardom. Mixing moments of bliss and frivolity with moments of reflection on pain and loss My Mind Makes Noises is truly a time capsule, catching the fullness of human life in fourteen tracks.
Reviewer: Kylie McCormick
Pale Waves image and artwork courtesy of PR.