|
All the Things I Never Said (Pale Waves EP)
All the Things I Never Said is the debut extended play by English indie pop band Pale Waves. It was released on 20 February 2018 by the independent record label Dirty Hit. All the Things I Never Said includes reworked versions of two of the band's earliest songs, "The Tide" and "Heavenly", alongside new tracks, "New Year's Eve" and "My Obsession". Originally slated for a January release under the name New Year's Eve, the EP was instead issued on February 20 under its present name. To promote the record, music videos were filmed for all four tracks, and each track was also released as a single, beginning with "New Year's Eve" on 7 November 2017. All the Things I Never Said was initially released digitally, but a vinyl edition was made available on 16 March. The record received largely positive reviews from critics and performed well commercially, reaching number one on both the UK Physical Singles Chart and the UK Vinyl Singles Chart. ProductionBackground and recordingIn 2015, Pale Waves, then comprising just Heather Baron-Gracie and Ciara Doran, recorded demos for their songs "The Tide" and "Heavenly", which the band posted to SoundCloud and sold on a CD-R demo tape via the internet.[1][2][3][4] These demo tracks were produced prior to guitarist Hugo Silvani and bassist Charlie Wood joining the band,[4][5] and upon their initial release, they caught the attention of XFM radio broadcaster John Kennedy. Kennedy in turn notified the independent label Dirty Hit, who subsequently signed the band onto their roster.[6] Around the time of the band's signing, Matty Healy of the 1975 took an interest in the group and helped them refine their sound by co-producing their first two singles, "There's a Honey" and "Television Romance".[7] In late 2017, following the release of "There's a Honey" and "Television Romance", Pale Waves began working on their debut EP, All the Things I Never Said, which was recorded and produced by Jonathan Gilmore,[8] a producer and mixer who had previously worked with the 1975.[9] ContentThe EP opens with "New Year's Eve", a "shimmering dance-tinged" track[10] whose lyrics explore, in part, the difficulty in establishing a rapport with not only a romantic partner but also with their friends and family.[3] The song's music was written by Doran in 2016 on Christmas Day. Doran then sent the instrumental to Baron-Gracie, who responded that she wanted the lyrics to channel the emotions of a particularly dramatic New Year's Eve she had had in the past.[11][12] "There is a big build up to that night", Baron-Gracie explained when asked about the song. "There's so much expectation for something special [to happen on the holiday] so a lot of the time it goes wrong."[12] Both "The Tide" (described by Far Out as an "anthemic power pop anthem") and "Heavenly" (which NME called a "beach-pop number") were written by the band in 2015.[13][14] Although Baron-Gracie and Doran would eventually go on to find both "a lot less personal" than their later songs, the band decided to include re-recorded and slightly-rewritten versions of the songs on the EP,[3] given the prominent role the songs had played in the band's early success. In an interview with Billboard magazine, Baron-Gracie explained:
"My Obsession", described by Baron-Gracie as an emotionally "complex" track, was written to reflect the sadness of her grandfather in the aftermath of his wife's death.[15] Musically, the song "features Pale Waves' signature elements of gloominess backtracked by an upbeat instrumental and a catchy chorus".[16] Despite being a song whose lyrics are awash in "grief and despair",[17] Baron-Gracie has singled out "My Obsession" as her favorite song on the record – even if it "breaks [her] heart every time" the group performs it.[15] Promotion and singles.jpg) The first single from the EP, "New Year's Eve", was released on November 7, 2017.[18] It entered contemporary hit radio rotation in the United Kingdom on December 15, 2017.[19] A music video for the song, directed by Stephen Agnew, premiered on December 5, 2017. The video depicts the band at a New Year's Eve party where they are the only guests and performers.[20] Although the band received multiple treatment proposals for the video, Agnew's stood out as the closest to their vision.[15] The second single, "My Obsession", debuted on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 show on December 12, 2017, before being released digitally the following day.[21][22] A video for the single, also directed by Agnew, was released on December 18, 2017, having been filmed alongside "New Year's Eve" over a two-day period. The video portrays Baron-Gracie living with a mannequin, treating it as the object of her love.[15][23] In an interview with The Fader, Baron-Gracie explained, "I wanted to create an uncomfortable, voyeuristic experience for the viewer, making them feel as if they were intruding on a world they shouldn't be a part of. Ultimately, it represents desperation, loneliness, and grief."[24] On January 31, 2018, "The Tide" premiered on Lowe's Beats 1 show as part of his "World Record" feature, with the song's digital release occurring the next day.[25][26] The music video, directed by Andy Deluca, premiered on February 7, 2018. It combines live performance footage with behind-the-scenes footage shot during the band’s headlining North American tour in November and December 2017.[27][28] The EP's final single, "Heavenly", premiered on BBC Radio 1's Annie Mac show on February 19, 2018, earning the title of "Hottest Record in the World."[29] It was serviced to UK contemporary hit radio on March 23.[30] The music video, released on March 19, 2018, was directed by Adam Powell. It features Baron-Gracie in a latex catsuit, suspended by wires that manipulate her movements. These scenes are intercut with close-up shots of her singing against a stark white backdrop.[31] The video had its world premiere on Wonderland's website.[32] Critical reception
Critical reception to the EP has been largely positive. Thomas Smith of NME praised the release as "a vivid 15-minute scrapbook of [the band's] journey thus far." Smith argued that the release "pushed the band's sound into daring new ground", and that its tracks were affectively moving.[1] Dave Beech of The Line of Best Fit awarded the album an eight out of ten, describing the EP as "four tracks of effortless indie-pop; its silky-smooth pop licks and sugar sweet vocal delivery masking a darkness that seems inherent to Pale Waves’ genetic make-up." While noting that some listeners might dislike the record's overt pop sensibilities, Beech wrote that it is "impossible to deny how much fun [Pale Waves's] music is".[33] Aurora Henni Grogh of Riot magazine wrote that the album was rich "with heartfelt lyrics that take us through the bitter-sweet landscape of romance", and that the EP as a whole "makes you wish you were young and in love". Grogh further complimented the record's melodies, guitar tone, and "intimacy" of its lyrics. Conversely, Grogh wrote that the EP "makes you yearn for more [musical] diversity" and that "Pale Waves need to show more" in the future.[34] Ally Tatosian of MXDWN wrote that, with All the Things I Never Said, Pale Waves "have created their own twist on the classic happy-sad vibe most indie-pop bands have successfully aged over the years". Baron-Gracie's writing, Tatosian further wrote, is "overflowing [with an] abundance of raw emotion", as best evidenced in the lyrics to "My Obsession" and "Heavenly".[35] Reception to the singles was largely positive. Writing for Clash magazine, reviewer Robin Murray called "New Year's Eve" an "engagingly bittersweet" song with a chorus that could have been "lifted straight from the end credits of a John Hughes movie",[36] DIY magazine called the song a "shimmering pop gem with a melancholy twist as the soaring hook".[37] In a review of "My Obsession", Murray wrote that the track was "endearingly open", "honest, reflective, and gently anthemic".[38] DIY similarly called "My Obsession" "another storming goth-pop sensation" whose "crunching riffs, jangly guitar melodies and a killer pop hook [explode] seemingly from nowhere".[39] Thomas Smith of NME dubbed "The Tide" an "indie-pop banger",[40] and Platform magazine described the track as a "feel-good ... dreamy, 80s inspired track".[41] Writing for The Line of Best Fit, Laurence Day wrote that "Heavenly" is "effortlessly charming from start to end", with an "euphoric chorus built to soundtrack memories of misspent youth and summer frolics and classic coming-of-age movies from decades past".[42] Commercial performanceInitially, slated to be released on 18 January 2018 under the title New Year's Eve,[43][44] All the Things I Never Said was officially released on 20 February 2018 by Dirty Hit.[45][46] The initial release was digital download-only, but on 16 March 2018, a vinyl version of the record was also released.[46][47] Track listing
Personnel
Charts
Release history
References
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Portal di Ensiklopedia Dunia
