[ Overview ]

It’s abundantly clear that from the first notes of their debut record, Pale Waves are wasting no time in being a force to be reckoned with. My Mind Makes Noises is ultimately a guitar rock record with a slick, synthesizer sheen. And that’s a really good thing.

“Eighteen” pulsates with a glistening mock-U2 buildup before bursting into an oscillating riffage and gated drums. It feels straight out of a an 80’s teen movie, and that’s kind of the point. It’s a great intro track. “There’s a Honey” continues this trend but with something more melodic and bass-heavy. It also undeniably sounds like pop-rock-synth forbearers The 1975. That’s not coincidental. The band’s George Daniel and Matthew Healy produced the song and also the album track “Television Romance”. They shimmer and bounce just like the songs on Daniel and Healy’s last record.

The album is full of moments like these. But then there’s variations: “Drive,” where vocalist Heather Baron-Gracie delivers a whopping ear-worm: “I drive fast so I can feel something I ruin my own life just for nothing/I fall in and out of love with everything/I really don't know what I'm doing.” It’s a perilously honest lyric by a band whose sound is so youthful and counts on dramatic dynamics, and is quite honestly, one of the album’s best songs. Other tracks like “When Did I Lose It All” plays with slow-dance atmospherics, while “Red” and “Kiss,” near the album’s endpoint, tease at something even more guitar based next time around.

- Brendan Hilliard, Obviate Media

[ Listen ]

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[ Album Information ]

2 LP - Black

- Track List -

Side A: Eighteen - There's A Honey - Noises

Side B: Came In Close - Loveless Girl - Drive - When Did I Lose It All

Side C: She - One More Time - Television Romance

Side D: Kiss - Black - Karl (I Wonder What It's Like To Die)