PinkPantheress: Heaven Knows
Heaven Knows feels like an old vinyl that you’d find buried in the attic, in a box that used to belong to your older brother. It looks and sounds like it was released in the late 90s-early 2000s. I can see half the songs being used in old teen dramas or as adult swim bumpers. This type of music has been called 'new nostalgia,' and it's the perfect way to describe the essence of this album.
This project starts extremely strong with Another Life (feat. Rema) inviting the listeners into what sounds like a haunted mansion. This song works perfectly as an opener because of the imagery that can be made and because it shows how much Panthress has grown since her first mixtape. The next three songs to follow this are good too, driving home the fact that the bedroom pop and UK garage sound has yet to go anywhere, just evolved into a more mature version of that sound. True Romance, Mosquito, and The Aisle are good examples of that quintessential PinkPanthress sound, blending Bright, upbeat tracks with contemplative lyrics and angelic vocals.
While Pink was able to curate such a unique yet familiar sound, she has also adopted a new fashion sense to match. Before this year, Pink's style was more gothic, but this new style is what people are calling "authentic Y2K." The Mosquito video is a perfect example, with the Breakfast at Tiffany's Esc music video having celebrity appearances from Charithra Chandran, India Amarteifio, and Yara Shahidi. The Mosquito video isn't the only video having a 2000s air to it; the music video for Nice to Meet You (feat. Central Cee) has a severe case of the Y2Ks, featuring this beautiful Frutiger Metro art style throughout the video. Even the dancers look straight out of MTV downtown. The song does an Outstanding job playing with both the artists' styles. It has this almost drill-sounding beat, but it still has that Panthress touch to it. All the features on this album do an excellent job of making sure it's a shared song like you're not listening to a PinkPanthress song with Rema on it, but a song that both had an equal part in. The best one, however, has to be Bury Me (Feat. Kelela). Kelela already sounds like she and Pink could have similar inspirations separately, but you could take Pink's verse off this track entirely, say it was Kelela's, and some wouldn't even question it.
The next song to follow is Internet Baby. The track is an interlude where Panthress discusses a relationship where a guy tries to express his interest in her, but she realizes that his interest is not in her but in her music. Many of the songs on this album talk about Panthresses' relationship with certain things; Mosquito talks about her relationship with her newfound money, and Nice to Meet You talks about a potential love interest for the singer. Only some of the songs are as personal as they sound, though. Pink has said that if all you write about is your emotions or relationships, you'll eventually run out of things to write.
Enter Ophelia, a song inspired by the William Shakespeare Hamlet character of the same name, who drowns herself. Panthress takes this concept and puts herself in the place of Ophelia, but instead of drowning herself, she is drowned by another person. A rather dark subject matter turned into a beautiful song. The artist tells Zane Lowe of Apple Music that the producer she was working with at the time, Danny L Harle, had all this medieval stuff in his studio, and the idea just came to her from there. Learning this, you can hear how the environment around her inspired not only the lyrics for the song but also the track itself.
Panthress explores many "what if" situations regarding her partners on this project. Feel Complete tells the story of her trying to understand someone dealing with alcoholism and realizing that they aren't the person that she thought they were. Blue is a follow-up of sorts. Panthress sings about how much she changed to become this version of herself that this person will notice, but he barely does. The song's second verse is where she realizes she can't keep trying to get this person to notice her if he can't accept her for who she is and ends any inkling of their relationship. She doesn't only revisit romantic quarrels, though; feelings sounding the most different of the album discusses a topic briefly mentioned in Mosquito. Peaking too early. Panthress belongs to a group of artists who got their start on TikTok during the pandemic. In 3 years has been able to perform at numerous festivals, appear on the Barbie movie soundtrack, and collaborate with many already-established artists. All this at the fresh age of 22. Achieving all this early on in her life without a book showing her the "correct way" to deal with fame, this song explores the anxiety the singer might have about her career. Unlike the others in this project, this song has a more melancholy sound in the lyrics and the backing track.
The album's actual closer is The Boys a Liar pt.2 with Ice Spice. Still, since everyone worldwide has heard that song, it's a safe bet that the definitive closer of the project is capable of love. It's a song where Pink takes on a limerence for someone they've never met in person. She is so in love with this person that she feels no one could come after them. The music video demonstrates how determined Pink is to prove that she and this person are meant to be together by referencing the Bjork song, Hyperballad, where Bjork throws nearby objects off the edge of the mountain every morning to release any internalized feelings she may have. Pink does this same thing in the video; however, it's never shown if the other person reciprocates the same feelings.
This is only PinkPanthress’s debut album, and that’s so exciting to know. Hopefully, the artist will keep the momentum and release such fantastic bodies of work like this one. Heaven Knows explores many emotions we all feel daily, which is why the project has such a cozy and comforting air. It’s relatable, honest, and sonically gorgeous.
