PinkPantheress Heaven knows Album Review

 On her lengthy-awaited debut album, the breakout U.K. Artist makes accurate on the promise of her preceding releases as she spins memories of death and obsession

“ANOTHER LIFE,” THE first music on PinkPantheress’ long-awaited debut album, Heaven Knows, opens with the ominous sound of an electrified cathedral organ. The collaboration with Nigerian musician Rema, in which the British singer wakes up subsequent to her accomplice only to locate him useless, fittingly seems like a funeral. “Can you please awaken, babe? Now you’re scaring me,” she sings, earlier than coming to terms along with her truth: “Guess you died today, and I can’t agree with it. You lost your soul, you recognize that you can’t prevent this.” It’s the identical sound of looming darkness that seemed in the one-minute trailer for the album, released in advance of its arrival. In the clip, a man with a rough voice deeply contrasting to the singer’s own angel-soft tone ponders: “The first time could be distinct for anyone. What will your enjoy be like?” That thriller — whether he’s relating to a primary stumble upon with what awaits on the opposite facet, or someone’s first time residing — sparks something in PinkPantheress, who embarks on a search for that means throughout the 13-track record. 

PinkPantheress’ preoccupation with mortality as it relates to romance — or the methods in which life continues for absolutely everyone again home while she’s lots of miles away — will strike familiar topics for listeners who have followed her rise so far. She explored similar notions on her 2021 mixtape, To Hell With It, and closing yr’s Take Me Home EP. On those releases, U.K. Garage and drum-and-bass collided with obscure dance samples as the singer crafted chew-length glances into the anxiety surrounding reputation, loss, and developing up. Her revised approach to the sound and style of the early 2000s without delay engraved her signature on popular culture, but she cautiously maintained her physical anonymity for so long as she should and to this present day safeguards her actual call. Her early, nameless beginnings on TikTok and Soundcloud left her with a separate place to retreat. The songs on the ones releases slightly reached the 2-minute mark. When she achieved live, she changed into on and off the degree in a flash, her handbag not often ever leaving her shoulder. 

But at some stage in Heaven Knows, PinkPantheress seems acutely aware about how high the stakes had been raised. The songs hover effectively between two and 4 mins. The album also marks the first instance in which the 22-year-vintage singer-songwriter-manufacturer recorded out of doors of London. Collaborations with big names like Mura Masa, Greg Kurstin, London on Da Track, Cash Cobain, and others led her to Los Angeles, in which she has additionally put down roots over the last  years. The farther she swims out, the faster the shoreline begins to vanish. “How regularly do I dream of attaining out?” she asks on “Blue.”

The buzz of her new environment may be heard in the hectic tales she weaves across the album. The live gadgets she introduces mingle with layers of harmonies that provide the emotions she explores with wealthy sonic and emotional textures. She communicates a novel curiosity approximately the human beings and assets she now has get right of entry to to, and a sense of marvel that manifests in twisted “what if” eventualities. PinkPantheress’ collaborators on the album also play with ideas of connection and distance — when to open up and whilst to pull again — like Ice Spice’s emotional tug of war on “Boys a Liar, Pt. 2,” Central Cee’s cheeky infidelity on “Nice to Meet You,” and Kelela’s resistance closer to being the primary to commit on “Bury Me.” 

Heaven Knows is split at once down the center via “Internet Baby,” a starry-eyed interlude nodding to PinkPantheress’ online roots. “My SDs and USBs, you need all of those, and now you need to borrow my clothes,” she thrums. “You’re a needy man, however I wager I kind of like that,” she sings, nonetheless familiarizing herself with giving and receiving attention. “You came on too sturdy, however I wager I type of like that.” For someone who has maintained this sort of guarded mind-set at some stage in her quick upward thrust, such cautious vulnerability can feel like a large threat.