PALE WAVES have unveiled a new single, Gravity, the third to be shared from the band’s forthcoming new album Smitten, to be released via Dirty Hit on 27 September.
The bright, guitar-laden Gravity finds frontwoman Heather Baron-Gracie lamenting being yanked in different directions by a lover unable to choose between their relationship or her religion: “She’s pulling me like gravity everywhere she goes / Am I in too deep or out of my reach? Little does she know”
Speaking about the track, Heather notes: “Gravity is about a woman who chose Jesus over me. It took the longest of all 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.”
Watch the video for Gravity here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOJmml-vN5I
Pre-order / Pre-save Smitten here: https://palewaves.ffm.to/smitten
Written between the US and UK over a two year period, Smitten finds the band reflecting upon their Northern roots. Deviating from the rebellious pop punk sound of the 2022 album Unwanted, this new record is full of vivid, earwormy hooks, thwacking snares and jangly alt-pop that sounds fresh out of their home city Manchester.
Lyrically, the record is preoccupied with past lives – some more recent than others. Heather found herself in a headspace where she could finally breathe and reflect, like peeling through the pages of a long-forgotten teenage diary and being surprised by what she found.
‘I found myself writing about not just a certain time period, but my whole life from years ago,” says Heather. “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 summarised perfectly what I felt for others at a certain point.”
So much of Smitten captures the excitement and euphoria of early queer relationships, some of which comes alongside confusion and pain. On lead single Perfume, an infectious 1980s-leaning anthem reminiscent of bands like The Cure and The Cranberries, Heather sings about being totally enamoured with a person: “My mother says that when I want something I never let go / Call me obsessed but I don’t mind just as long as it’s all mine”.