Pale Waves - Eighteen

Pale Waves are no strangers to writing a hit - we knew this from the moment they released debut single ‘There’s A Honey’. New single ‘Eighteen’ though, the single released in conjunction with the announcement of their debut album ‘My Mind Makes Noises’, goes above and beyond.

From the opening thuds of synth that greet the track, it’s clear that this is Pale Waves’ biggest, most direct pop song yet, a track that doesn’t fuck about, just promptly shoots for the stars (and the arenas, for that matter).

“This city depresses me,” Heather Baron-Gracie laments in the track’s first line, before being drawn back into love by a significant other. The track carries the revelationary emotional weight of a first love, bursting with colour and wide-eyed wonder. Whether it’s viewed nostalgically or as an of-the-moment revelation, it hits hard.

Then there’s the chorus, the best Pale Waves have ever written. The band’s glossy sheen remains, but it’s joined by a new-found grit as Heather bellows the track’s title: ‘Eighteen’ is as much indebted to Avril Lavigne as it is Depeche Mode and other gods of synth-pop. A step up from the band’s already-prolific habit of writing chart-mingling choruses, ‘Eighteen’ is their best, most direct effort yet and comes just in time for an album that looks like becoming one of the year’s most exciting debuts.