Manchester-based pop-rock outfit Pale Waves return with their fourth album ‘Smitten`.
Lead vocalist Heather Baron-Gracie explained her mindset going into the record: “I found myself writing about not just a certain time period, but my whole life, from years ago. 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.”
`Glasgow` leads us in and it’s a number which lyrically discusses the dilemma of “leaving someone because you know it’s no good for either of you anymore” It`s a kind of gothy offering with Cure like guitar riffs and vocals that have a Dolores O`Riorden inflection. We have a fairly captivating melodic quite dreamy submission with `Not A Love Song`
`Gravity` is a faster paced pop song with a real vulnerability shared in the vocal delivery that laments being pulled in different directions by a lover unable to choose between their relationship or her religion. That feeling when someone leaves and you can’t quite fully move on is expressed in `Thinking About You` where the reflective musical accompaniment mirrors the pain of the situation shared.
`Perfume` is a meditative love song that explores the excitement of new love and the “complexity that comes with the beginning of a relationship”, while we have a more introspective ballad like offering with `Last Train Home`
`Kiss Me Again` is a euphonious listen which hints at instant attraction and the yearning for a possible casual amorous encounter. There`s a fairly anthemic appeal to `Miss America` about a love that endures despite all of life’s ups and downs. `Hate to Hurt You` is a fairly euphoric melodic pop composition expressing sorrow for actions the narrator perpetrates against their partner or lover. We enjoy a similar vibe on `Seeing Stars`.
`Imagination` rolls along with a shimmer about it while `Slow` leads us out on a final quite anthemic note.
`Smitten` has all you`d expect from Pale Waves and a little more with sentimental anthems, singalongs, break up songs and plenty of emotional angst all packaged up with some catchy melodies. There is a slight goth like vibe which adds a further dimension to this quartet but I have to say four albums in six years is nothing to be sneered at.
Rating 8/10
