Album Review: Pale Waves, Smitten, out now

Written By Christian Cole, OOTB Publications

Manchester, United Kingdom pop-rockers Pale Waves just released their follow up to 2022’s Unwanted, and it shows a stray away from the pop-punk leanings of the last two albums. Smitten (Dirty Hit) is a bright and colorful mix of pop and nu wave, the 12-track release comes in at around 40 minutes long and is fairly enticing for a poppier effort, the glow sounds well on them.

With their fourth full length album, we see a band tightening up, polishing and making adjustments to an ever changing sound and it is in fact done with class. It’s bubbly, and fun. It’s a throw back to ‘80s synth pop and it works well with the level of production that we see here. A solid pop-rock effort and a sonic step onward.

Rating

2.7/5

Favorite Tracks

“Glasgow,” “Seeing Stars”

Tracklist

Not A Love Song

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