Album Review: Pale Waves - Who Am I?
After testing the waters with a handful of singles over the last twelve months, Who Am I? holds Heather Baron-Gracie’s personal life up for inspection under the microscope. Focusing on her struggles with identity and acceptance, the notion of self-reflection underpins the entire record.
As the grungier big sister of debut album My Mind Makes Noise, opening with the polished and preppie sounds of ‘Change’ and ‘Fall To Pieces’ makes complete sense. Nodding effortlessly to their earlier sound whilst plucking some of the punkier riffs heard in the likes of Avril Lavigne’s ‘Complicated’, it’s an unassuming blend of both the new and the old. Radio-ready hooks like those seen from the band’s debut release still linger throughout parts of Who Am I?, but it’s the new rawer, grungy notes that now dominate these parts. ‘She’s My Religion’ carries some of those influences to the fore, and it’s here where we begin to understand the narrative arc behind this record.
Over the last three years, both Heather Baron-Gracie and Ciara Doran have emerged as open members of the LGBTQ+ community. Speaking on ‘She’s My Religion’, Heather says, “I’ve been open about my sexuality for a while, but I’ve never put it into a song… I wanted to write a song that used pronouns because for so many years I didn’t in my music, and now I realise how important that is, to normalise LGBTQ relationships in a world that needs it. Love who you wanna love and embrace it.”
The angsty admissions in the chorus of ‘You Don’t Own Me’ draw perfectly upon on Heather’s growing pains in misogyny-stricken society, whilst ‘I Just Needed You’ explores how she falls too deeply into love and relationships. But it’s in this album’s final two tracks where Baron-Gracie truly relinquishes control. “I know I keep you up at night, it’s hard on you most of the time,” she admits in an open letter to her Mother in the first verse of penultimate track, ‘Run To’.
The title track is a softer ballad that allows Baron-Gracie to lay her demons out for all to see, with the beautifully intimate closing track seeming to tie-up all of her loose ends. Delivering a nostalgic trip down memory lane for those raised on millennium pop-punk, Who Am I? is a sensational record, and is the brazen statement of acceptance that every young person needs to hear. Pale Waves have combined tales of love and heartbreak with wider societal issues in a way which translates effortlessly to the indie-pop-punk realm. They may have started out unsure of who they were, but it seems that now, they’ve got it all figured out.
Words: Issy Aldridge