Album Review: Pale Waves - 'Unwanted'
A year on from their last release, British rockers Pale Waves are finding their feet and talking through all of their emotions whether the world - and their exes - want them to or not. It’s time to feel Unwanted.
Looking at themes of pain, jealousy, isolation and grief, the band have adopted a power-pop/pop-punk sound reminiscent of decades past for this release. Experimenting with heavier punk sounds on 2021’s Who Am I?, they have kept at it and it fits with the messages being discussed within the record.
Opening the record is lead single ‘Lies’, which takes a catchy alt-pop melody and pushes it with a memorable chorus performed by frontwoman Heather Baron-Gracie’s chanting voice. A song about calling someone out for toying with emotions and faking love, and the karmic justice waiting to happen. It’s a bittersweet simple track and a great start for the record; and it will just get better and angrier from there.
The title track follows on and takes on that classic comforting 2000s pop-punk, a la Sum 41. Feel-good sound with feeling-bad lyrics about being made to feel stupid, unnecessary, and overall unwanted in someone’s life. The chorus’ opening line split into two: starting with “you’re so good” before going into “at making me feel like nothing”, almost adding to this audible deception. A fun track disguising the hurt and trauma that each word speaks - a response or an artistic choice, that’s the debate. Whichever the truth is, it still works and is an outstanding track on the record.
‘Alone’ is all about regret and about wanting to turn back the clock to change one pinnacle moment for the better. ‘You’re So Vain’ is a diss track about the most self-centred person in life put together with a bouncy pop-rock-turned-punk accompaniment that all ages can love and rock out to.
Unwanted is shaping to be a storybook full of woeful tales and fables, with lessons of being cautious and careful with your heart and head being taught. If it’s a good lesson or bad one is up for interpretation, and that enough shows Pale Waves have perfected their songwriting skills to be able to give listeners that choice.
The album ends with ‘So Sick (Of Missing You)’, a melancholic conclusion which is laced with tragedy and frustration alongside the full album’s theme of angst and fury. It’s targeted at the narrator and the former love interest, as the lyrics take turn in pointing the blame on the former flame’s flaws and on the narrator themselves for still thinking about them and missing them despite their toxic traits. It’s a tale all too real in this day and age, and a story that many around the world can relate to. Suffering and grieving, while being unsure whether their ex was to blame for being a bad person or they’re to blame for putting up with it and actually missing them being in their lives. These people are not alone, as long as they have others such as Baron-Gracie sharing every thought in their minds and every emotion in their hearts.
Unwanted is the heartbreak album of the summer and potentially of 2022. Without sugarcoating it or prettying up the raw aches and pain behind mindless pop sounds, they’ve managed to make happy but sad music that speaks to their generation and beyond. Heartbreak hurts; trauma stings; toxicity damages the soul; but it’s never permanent and healing will happen and times will change.
Pale Waves are making everyone feel a little more wanted with Unwanted.
Words by Jo Cosgrove
