Pale Waves
My Mind Makes Noises

With Pale Waves, it feels like we’ve gone back ten, fifteen years, when the NME in England was in constant search of the next big thing to feed to the press and public.

Now the world has changed, but the modus operandi in the case of the four young people led by frontwoman Heather Baron-Gracie remains the same. After a (good) EP released six months ago, the Mancunians Pale Waves are entering the market with this debut "My Mind Makes Noises," and immediately the hype is sky-high. The British press talks about nothing else and the "new The 1975" are already on everyone's lips.

An absolutely non-coincidental comparison: the leader of the aforementioned band, Matthew Healey, is a supporter of the Manchester band, is among the producers of this debut (along with bandmate George Daniel) and the two groups even share the same record label, Dirty Hit. It’s inevitable that the sound of Pale Waves is very close to that of their highly successful "colleagues," if only because the intent (at least initially) is the same: to take certain '80s pop and update it to modern indie rock fascinations.

Does the operation succeed? Halfway, and for several reasons. The cocktail seems right: the more commercial Cure, the noisier Duran, and the post-Gabriel Genesis (from "Invisible Touch" onwards) taken, blended well, dusted with 1975-branded powdered sugar and spat out again sung by a kind of watered-down version of the late Dolores O’Riordan. Everything points to the perfect mix, which, however, doesn’t always work properly due to some excesses and certain really off-target choices.

The album starts well with a potential hit like "Eighteen," and holds up when Pale Waves delightfully pump bombastic synths just enough ("Red," "Drive"), or try to dry out the sound and build slightly more accomplished soundscapes, as in the beautiful ballads "When Did I Lose It All?" and "She," up to the extreme in the concluding "Karl (I Wonder What It's Like To Die)," which brings everything to the bare minimum.

The game works less well when the guys overdo it and, with lyrics absolutely not up to par and really too adolescent to always and consistently be honest, they showcase a series of episodes too trivially pop, evoking undesired ghosts like Taylor Swift and the worst Katy Perry.

Pale Waves' debut is successful halfway; there’s a decent melodic taste and good craftsmanship in the writing, and it shows, but it also shows that the guys are trying too hard to be liked, and there is a certain awareness of wanting to target a very specific slice of the audience, which, however, is fickle and subject to sudden changes.

Some episodes suggest that Baron-Gracie and associates might take appropriate countermeasures with future works and adjust their aim accordingly. With another EP already announced, along with a shift (at least in intentions) towards a rougher and punk sound, it seems that the lesson (at least in words) has already been assimilated. In any case, we will verify very soon.

Best track: "Karl (I Wonder What It’s Like To Die)"