New Music: Pale Waves - Red

Today Pale Waves release their debut album My Mind Makes Noises. I think there's been enough talk about the band now and they've played enough live gigs for everyone to see the arguments both good and bad about what they do. However, whatever you think about them, they’re doing something right. Hype only lasts for a very short time - people see through it if the artist doesn't deliver and Pale Waves continue to play increasingly larger shows with an ever more energetic, enraptured and youthful audience. The first time I saw them their crowd was a mainly unresponsive bunch of guys in a small pub. The last time it was a big bouncing gang of mainly young people losing their sh*t to every song. The whole thing felt rather glorious.

After just three plays through the album, here’s a tune that has already cemented itself as one of my favourite tracks from the record. Eighteen, Kiss and There’s A Honey are all glorious (if rather similar) pop but Red is as good as any of those. It is, to use a well-worn term, a banger. It’s the sort of tune I’d have really liked Taylor Swift to have made after the 1989 album rather than the bloated Reputation LP. But then of course Taylor already has an album called Red, so she’s been there done that. It will be interesting to see how the critics respond to the record - I'm predicting a mixed response with younger writers favouring it over older ones.

Red is another obsessive relationship song. This seems to be what Pale Waves do; singing about the make-ups, the break-ups and the bits in between, before and after. It's the stuff of simple attraction that their young audience can relate to. “You haven’t left my mind, trust me that that I’ve tried and I’ve tried, I’ve tried.” Yet it seems that Heather really doesn’t know that much about the other person, except that Red is their favourite colour. Well, I guess it’s one criteria to make a judgement about someone. Unless of course, you’re like me and don’t have a favourite – it all depends on how the colours are used. 

This one is on Soundcloud - it seems (for the moment) the band haven't restricted it to just Soundcloud Go users, bucking the trend for most major label acts. Take a listen below. Pale Waves are doing a Twitter listening party tonight at 9pm, whatever that involves. Probably lots of people just tweeting 'I love U', but if that sounds like your bag join in and get tweeting. Maybe tell them what your favourite colour is?

Pale Waves - Red