Smitten review | Pale Waves embrace dreamy nostalgia in a sweet but shallow ode to first love.

With each release, Pale Waves’ are slowly plotting out their own sonic bildungsroman. While their avid genre-hopping can seem eclectic, each texture seems to welcome in a new phase of maturity; flickering between alt-rock, indie-pop, and rebellious pop-punk, each realm of sound allows a new way of unravelling adolescent angst.

Smitten comes as the Manc unit’s next stage of growth, floating in an 80s-tinged haze of doe-eyed infatuation. It’s dream-pop that effortlessly transports you back to your first kiss, your first love, your first heartbreak. And who can resist experiencing that initial vertigo of pure, head-over-heels magic all over again?

From start to finish, Smitten feels like Pale Waves written by John Hughes. From ‘Thinking About You’ to the sparkling synths of ‘Perfume’, you can picture Heather Baron-Gracie lying on pastel-pink sheets surrounded by postered walls, whispering down the phone as she twiddles with a landline cord.

Despite defining herself as an edgy, sultry indie-rock frontwoman in previous years, Baron-Gracie’s light vocals perfectly pair with this luscious new realm of dream-pop. It amplifies each track’s blushing innocence, adding a giddy quality as it floats over shimmering guitars. 

The nostalgic sound only amplifies the record’s sensations of pure teenage love. While the record diverges from Pale Waves’ previous releases, glimmers of their roots rear their head from time to time. ‘Seeing Stars’ and ‘Imagination’ in particular is reminiscent of the band’s 2018 debut, My Mind Makes Noises, all-the-while interweaving their classic charms with a kiss of lingering 90s magic. The combination feels like a modern take on The Cranberries or Mazzy Star, a bubbling daydream that absolutely melts in your mouth. 

That being said, while it’s easy to immerse yourself into Smitten’s world of blossoming love, there’s no risk of sinking in too deep. Lyrically, Pale Waves keep things quite shallow and simple, flickering between each subject of adoration. A few cuts follow a more unique narrative, of course: ‘Not A Love Song’ explores Baron-Gracie resenting her role of queer manic pixie dreamgirl in another girl’s sexual experimentation, while the jangling ‘Gravity’ reflects on a relationship doomed to fail over religious guilt. But there’s nothing too poetic going on. The simplicity does add to the sense of immaturity, coming to terms with each romantic encounter, but it does leave you longing for a little more complexity.

In the soaring opener ‘Glasgow’, Baron-Gracie croons “I was doing more feeling than thinking,” and that’s Smitten through and through. Beyond the hazy synths and fuzzy riffs, this is a record is a diary entry smothered in cherry lipstick, a black and white photobooth strip capturing a life-altering smooch. It’s a record that keeps things light, but that never detracts from how charming it is. Simply put, Smitten feels like falling in love – and that’s pretty goddamn special.

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