There were a few questions asked of Manchester’s Pale Waves in these quarters at least when their second release Television Romance sounded like a copycat version of their rather brilliant and hooky debut There’s A Honey. Add in a slightly stilted and samey debut London headline gig and I was beginning to question if the indie-buzz in the UK around the band was really justified.
Thankfully the third song out of the bag, New Year’s Eve gives more hope. Sure, it’s not radically different from the other two and there’s still the nagging suspicion that lead singer Heather’s vocal delivery might become a bit tiresome over a whole album, but New Year’s Eve is undeniably catchy, from its chilled ambient beginning through to the 80’s jam-pop funkiness which sounds not that dissimilar to Breaking More Waves favourites Fickle Friends.
The music is certainly upbeat and confident, but it’s not that way lyrically on the song: “I don’t want to be alone on New Year’s Eve, do you even wanna be with me?” sings Heather doubtfully.
A sad fact for you all – whilst Heather is worrying about New Year’s Eve studies show that for a lot of people New Year’s Day is even worse – and I don’t just mean because of bad hangovers. In the UK December 31st has one of the lowest suicide rates of the year, whilst January 1st is the day with the highest rate. There’s a suggestion that this is because of the ‘broken promises effect’, when hopes of a new beginning are not met.
New Year’s Eve is the first track to come from Pale Waves forthcoming debut EP, released in early 2018 on Dirty Hit.
Pale Waves - New Year's Eve
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