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My Mind Makes Noises, Pale Waves’ debut full-length album, boasts seventeen tracks. Of these seventeen tracks, seven are brand new and previously unreleased, three are clean versions of other tracks, and the remaining seven have been released as singles. Pale Waves are known for their special brand of saccharine yet electric, ‘80s inspired synth pop/rock. I was expecting My Mind Makes Noises to simply be a mass of songs like this, and was a little worried at first, that they’d all blend into one in my mind. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Pale Waves massively impressed me with not only the scope of material on the album, but the variety of sounds they were able to produce. The songs, while boasting a variety of influences, are still loyal to the sound that Pale Waves have crafted and are known for.

The album starts with ‘Eighteen’, and that same bubblegum style of synth pop we’re familiar with when we think of Pale Waves. Heather Baron-Gracie, lead singer and frontwoman of the band, croons “I felt like I could finally see in colour”, and we are thrown into the album with colour, feeling, and young love. However, with ‘There’s a Honey’, we transition into more uncertain ground – “I’d give you my body, but I’m not sure that you want me”, Baron-Gracie admits. The album then starts to turn very quickly away from that carefree vibrancy which we were initially introduced to.

‘Noises’, the title track, and one of the recently released singles from the album, continues this atmosphere, and manages to take it even further. Baron-Gracie sings of emotional turmoil, confusion, struggling with anxiety and a sense of self – “What do you see when you look at me? I can’t control my emotions lately”. There is a grittier guitar solo here, with links back to classic rock, while also displaying the heavy influence of The 1975.

Throughout the album, however, there are a number of deviations from the sound we associate with Pale Waves. ‘Came in Close’ has a faster, ‘90s style beat underlying the track, with an almost hip hop feel. ‘Loveless Girl’ features electronic beats and scratchy vocals, which drag as if a scratched record was skipping and restarting. “Red” begins slow and mournful, with the introduction featuring just vocals and guitar, but is built upon with an electric percussive rhythm. Very noughties-esque electronica beats underpin the chorus and the main body of the song, with electric guitar reintroduced to break it up somewhat and bring more depth to the song. ‘Black’ offers a very The 1975 inspired track, with warped electric guitar and eerie and melancholic notes being dragged out throughout.

There are also a number of slower songs on the album, some of which really stand out. ‘When Did I Lose It All’ begins with piano, and a slower intro. It is almost ballad-like, and vastly different to the likes of ‘Television Romance’ and ‘There’s a Honey’. It’s a song of loss and heartbreak, as Baron-Gracie longs for a lost love, “It’s always been you, it’s always been you”. The synth and drums kick in, but it’s still gentler than what we’re used to. It is somewhat glittery, with sounds that seem to twinkle. The bridge is almost punk-rock inspired, with mournful lyrics and warbling notes as the guitar kicks in.

‘Karl (I Wonder What It’s Like To Die)’ is even more different yet again, and is without a doubt one of the most emotive and raw tracks on the album. With its acoustic guitar and harrowing, echoing vocals, it appears to be one of the  more honest tracks on the album, really stripping it all back to the bare bones of the song and what it means. A song about the loss of someone close to the speaker, about missing someone and having a piece of you gone with them too, it’s thoroughly emotive and gripping. “I wonder what it’s like to die,” Baron-Gracie crows in the chorus, in a moment of vulnerability for the band.

One of my favourites off the album is ‘Kiss’, with its witty lyrics and upbeat music. It’s an example of “classic Pale Waves”, with its synth-pop underpinned by grittier guitar and drums. It occupies the perfect cross-section of carefree and heartbroken that Pale Waves’ lyrics often seem to reside in.

All in all, I was massively impressed with the album. It’s the perfect post-summer release, with the pop beats promising to extend the summer days somewhat. It shows a variety in Pale Waves’ body of work, which we never really got to see before, and gives scope for more stripped down tracks and more exploration of sounds.

“My Mind Makes Noises” was released on September 14th 2018. Pale Waves also have an upcoming tour, with dates in Belfast, Cork, Limerick, Dublin and more in the U.K. Tickets are still available.