Pale Waves is something of an anomaly. Lead singer Heather Baron-Gracie suggests a queer-edged Avril Lavigne, and the English band’s aesthetic draws inspiration from indie pop, pop-punk, and goth rock, reminiscent of the mainstream emo explosion of the early aughts, with a sprinkle of the Tumblr subculture of the early 2010s for good measure.
“This is not a love song/We don’t end up together,” Baron-Gracie proclaims on “Not a Love Song,” a track from Pale Waves’s fourth studio album, Smitten. It’s a bold statement, proudly declaring its independence from some of the more lovestruck lyrics of the band’s earlier songs. Baron-Gracie and company also lean much heavier into their indie-rock roots on Smitten, eschewing the pop-punk hooks of their first three albums for a more subdued tone.
Baron-Gracie’s lyrics are more straightforward and candid than ever here. On “Miss America,” she comes to terms with the end of a turbulent youth and how it has shaped her into the person she’s become: “Now I’m older/Counting days/No, I’m not perfect/But I’m harder to break.” And she allows herself be even more vulnerable on “Seeing Stars”: “It was a lesson guess I had to learn/Took my turn just like anybody would/Lost my mind, I forgot about my worth.”
The theme of same-sex love, one that’s always been at the forefront of Pale Waves’s music, courses through the aptly titled Smitten. Baron-Gracie leans hard into her queerness on songs like “Gravity” (“She’s living in my mind/Not knowing what she’ll find/But she stays and stays/All night, all day”) and “Last Train Home” (“She’s the secret I kept all along/Always waiting for it to be told”). By emphasizing these messy but universal feelings, Pale Waves normalizes the idea of young queer love.
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