Pale Waves – My Mind Makes Noises (Dirty Hit on 14 September 2018)

Good to be listening to a band once again, especially in the form of Pale Waves who arrive with their highly anticipated debut album ‘My Mind Makes Noises’ to be released on 14th September through Dirty Hit.

The new release features fourteen tracks, including the singles ‘There’s A Honey’, ‘Television Romance’, ‘Kiss’, ‘Eighteen’ and ‘Noises’. From that list of singles, It’s not hard surmise that the band bridge indie pop with free form, occasional dream/candy narration, coupled with frequent healthy guitars,  the Manchester band seem routed in atmospherics both dark but mostly light and always more centre staged and accessible. If Stranger Things ever gets to 2018, Pale Waves will most definitely would feature on their playlists. But TV nostalgia aside, their sound is draws on a few decades, with a modern outlook.

The band consists of Heather Baron-Gracie (vocals, guitar), Hugo Silvani (guitar), Charlie Wood (bass) and Clara Doran (drums). They were signed to the Dirty Hit label in 2016 and their first two singles, 2017’s “There’s a Honey and ‘Television Romance;. were produced by Matthew Healy of labelmates The 1975. Their first ‘All the Things I Never Said’ EP was released in February of 2018.

Watch the video to Eighteen

‘My ‘Mind Makes Noises’  opens with three singles back to back, the evocative ‘Eighteen’ works the mana, before, ‘There’s A Honey’ takes attentonm then the more structed, ‘Noises’ if the listener is not keyed in by now, they perhaps will never will be. ’When I Lost It All’ feels more universal, whereas ‘She’ of more remembered import. The uptempo, let’s go out with a bang of  ‘One More Time’, but next up it’s  ‘Television Romance’ which takes the honours of later tracks. Ran close by worthy ‘Kiss’ and ‘Black’ and bare ‘Karl (I Wonder What It’s Like To Die)’.

Pop sensibilities meet modern reality, we all have stories, but Pale Waves make them sound so much more interesting. 8/10

Steve Janes

Watch the video to Noises