PinkPanthress - Heaven Knows - The Singles, Reviewed

PinkPanthress - Heaven Knows - The Singles, Reviewed

Over the last 12 months, PinkPanthress has become my de facto response to when people say there's no good pop music. Initially coming across her music purely by chance, I was instantly hooked. The mix of retro style UK dance music of all variations like garage and jungle, paired with her incredibly distinctive, characterful, emotive, and futuristic vocal style on her 'to hell with it' mixtape blew me away, retrospectively becoming one of my favourite releases of that year. Not to mention she's one of the few artists I think to truly transcend the "TikTok music" label, so it's been really cool in the last 9 months or so to see her transformation from internet sensation to full blown pop superstar, while continuing to release some really unique pop music. It's no surprise then that I was thrilled to hear news of her debut album 'Heaven Knows' releasing on November 10th. So let's take a look and see if the singles live up to the hype.

Mosquito

Admittedly it might not be the hugest grand statement of a single, but what it is is a really damn good pop track, and that’s all I need. Instrumentally, it’s fairly paired down, but brilliant all the same. A tight, snappy garage/jungle beat and deep bassline are complimented really well by the guitars (or what could be electric pianos) throughout the beat, both somehow synthetic and quaint at the same time, but that have a great forlorn sense of melody to them. Other additions such as the odd keyboard sparkles, Spanish guitars, catchy yet understated whistles and solemn string passages on the chorus help tenfold to bring home the track’s endlessly dreamy vibe, which is an absolute treat to the ears. Even things that might otherwise be tacky like the flourishes of extra percussion or the DJ scratches only serve to endear me further to its homespun, bedroom-dance aesthetic. It seems very much a logical step up from her mixtape days. Of course the vocals have a fantastic showing too. The genius of PinkPanthress to me lies in the fact that, while she doesn’t have the most commanding, big “pop” voice in the world, and in fact is quite understated, that somehow makes her melodies all the catchier, as she just seems to offer up ear worm after ear worm without breaking a sweat. Not to mention that she has a really cool, distinct vocal timbre too, often with bucketloads of pathos along with it. That sense of deep emotion I’ve talked about seems to bear out in a lot of her lyrics too, and this is no exception. It seems very strange that a song so fraught with emotion, about the polar opposite personalities of a relationship, an office working boyfriend and socialite girlfriend, and how that can instil a deep sense of anxiety and insecurity in a person as to their dynamic, could be so damn catchy, yet here we are. If you’ve not heard PinkPanthress before, this would be a great entry point. It gives you all the things you’re likely to love about her in one short, bright yet melancholic burst, but with a new, fresh coat of paint.

Capable of love

This track without a doubt shows PinkPanthress at her most dramatic and bombastic ever, and I’m absolutely here for it. It’s a real ‘Slow Dancing in the Dark’, bursting out of your shell type moment if that makes sense, and it’s fantastic. The melancholic, psychedelic, dreamy dueling guitars that lead the intro sound great, and work really nicely to establish the track’s super ethereal vibe. Then when another peppy jungle beat pops in underneath, complimented by some distorted guitar type sounds and synth choirs, as incongruous as it sounds, it’s actually really effective at building a very cool sense of tension, drama and anticipation that goes through the track, as do the scattered acoustic drum fills too. In the pre-chorus is where it really starts to build: the beats become snappier and punchier, the melodies subtly building and layering underneath, the anticipation is palpable, and it’s really, really cool. Before the payoff arrives though, the bridge offers up a very forlorn passage, with some very tasteful touches of grand pianos and psychedelic sound effects that genuinely makes the track sounds like a dream. Then comes the beat drop, and wow. Every element of the track, the punchiness of the beats, the ethereality of the melodies, the vast, cavernous, cinematic vibe, it’s all punched up to 11 and works as the perfect payoff. Sure, the phased outro is maybe a touch overly long, but even there, the touches of acoustic bass and church bells are very tasteful. To top it all off, the vocals are absolutely top notch. She maybe isn’t belting the melodies out quite as emphatically as I may have insinuated, but my god she really understood the assignment. The verse vocals are nothing short of angelic, graceful, dreamy, and of course, super catchy, what’s not to love? Then on the chorus, while she might not go toe-to-toe with the instrumental in terms of volume or intensity, it’s definitely one of her most emphatic, dynamic, and maybe technically impressive vocal performances, and is all the better for it, the sense of emotion coming across flooring in the process, it’s genuinely powerful. Add the lyrics onto that, concerning themselves with the sense of all consuming, yet uncertain, volatile love of an online relationship, and they add yet another kind of tragic dystopian element into the mix. Given all this, this may well end up being one of the absolute best mainstream pop tracks all year. It’s absolutely brilliant, showing one of modern pop’s most distinct and unique voices at the height of her powers.

So, if it wasn't obvious already, given these two singles, I think I can quite confidently say that this will probably go down as the best mainstream pop album of the year. Not only that, but I’d be damn surprised if it didn’t end up in my year-end top 10, or even higher, and that’s just off two singles. Who knows what else lies in store? I’d just hope for more of the same.