The UK’s Pale Waves have just released their new single, “Gravity,” from their upcoming fourth studio album, Smitten out September 27th, via the Dirty Hit record label. The single pulls from lead singer Heather Baron-Gracie’s own experiences of dating a woman who was struggling to choose between their relationship or her religion. The accompanying music video stars Heather’s girlfriend. Check it out below and read more from the band.
Stream “Gravity” and pre-order Smitten here: https://palewaves.ffm.to/smitten
““Gravity” is about a woman who chose Jesus over me,” shares lead singer Heather. “It took the longest of all of the songs on the album to finish, I think we must have rewritten it millions of times to get it to where it is now.”
“Gravity” follows the release of lead single “Perfume,” which premiered as BBC Radio 1’s Hottest Record. The dreamy, official video for the sapphic single finds the band in a hazy, lovestruck fairytale and is reminiscent of bands like The Cure and The Cranberries. Watch it here: (https://youtu.be/7–oXexEuaI) Pale Waves also released their breakup anthem “Glasgow” which finds Heather lamenting about fleeing Glasgow after being jilted at the altar.
Produced by Iain Berryman (Wolf Alice, Florence and the Machine, beabadoobee) and written between the US and UK over a two-year period, Smitten blends the band’s timeless indie rock with a new wave of romantic nostalgia to celebrate Pale Waves’ newfound level of confidence, freedom, and self-acceptance while they reflect on their roots and explore themes of vulnerability, love, sexuality, queerness, finding yourself, moving on, and growing up.
Borrowing from all of Pale Waves’ previous albums – and deviating from the rebellious pop punk sound of 2022 album Unwanted – to create something entirely new, Smitten is their realest and most grounded record to date and captures the excitement and euphoria as well as the confusion and pain of early queer relationships. Smitten is lyrically preoccupied with past lives and sees Heather Baron-Gracie reflecting upon her roots and finding herself in a headspace where she could finally breathe and reflect.
“I found myself writing about not just a certain time period, but my whole life, from years ago,” Heather shares. “When I fall in love, I fall deep, and it’s interesting to me that you can feel so fascinated and smitten with someone and then they can become a total stranger. So I feel like Smitten really summarized perfectly what I felt for others at a certain point.”
Smitten tracklist:
01 Glasgow
02 Not a Love Song
03 Gravity
04 Thinking About You
05 Perfume
06 Last Train Home
07 Kiss Me Again
08 Miss America
09 Hate to Hurt You
10 Seeing Stars
11 Imagination
12 Slow
Recently wrapping a North American tour with PVRIS, Pale Waves will be hitting the road in October for their UK headline tour which will make stops in major cities across the country and includes a hometown performance at Neighbourhood Festival as well as a stop at London’s Outernet. Get tickets here: https://www.palewaves.co.uk/
2024 tour dates:
October 3 – The Waterfront – Norwich, UK
October 4 – O2 Academy – Liverpool, UK
October 5 – Neighbourhood Festival – Manchester, UK
October 6 – Rock City – Nottingham, UK
October 8 – Chalk – Brighton, UK
October 9 – O2 Academy – Bristol, UK
October 10 – Foundry – Sheffield, UK
October 11 – Fat Sam’s – Dundee, UK
October 13 – SWG3 – Glasgow, UK
October 14 – Boiler Shop – Newcastle, UK
October 15 – O2 Institute – Birmingham, UK
October 17 – HERE at Outernet – London, UK
December 9 – Bigcat – Osaka, Japan
December 10 – Toyosu PIT – Tokyo, Japan
More from Pale Waves:
Drawing strength from not fitting into a mold while encouraging inclusivity and self-acceptance across their discography, the band has received international acclaim for their 2022 album Unwanted which was recorded with producer Zakk Cervini (Blink-182, Halsey, Machine Gun Kelly). Unwanted marked new territory for the band as they flipped the script on their sound to tap into darker emotions with the rage of a 90s rock band and 13 fresh, defiant pop-punk tracks including singles “Clean,” “Jealousy,” and “Lies.” The band has toured the globe with The 1975, 5 Seconds of Summer, Muse, The Cure, and more, and made an immediate splash when they debuted on the music scene with their debut album My Mind Makes Noises before following it up with their hit sophomore album Who Am I? in 2021 which hit #3 on the UK album charts and welcomed standout tracks “Change,” “Easy,” and “She’s My Religion.”
Lineup:
Heather Baron-Gracie (she/her) – Vocals
Ciara Doran (they/them) – Drums
Huge Silvani (he/him) – Guitar
Charlie Wood (he/him) – Bass
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https://www.youtube.com/c/PaleWaves
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0wOej91SVqB1zcYkW6xUtA
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/pale-waves/1204484734