PinkPantheress’ Heaven knows doubles down on every trademark of the viral pop sensation.
Simultaneously whimsical and melodramatic, Heaven knows explores love and doubt in PinkPantheress’ signature danceable style.
PinkPantheress, the stage name of Victoria Walker, rose to fame as the internet’s prized pop darling for her comically short songs packed with catchy hooks and infectious drum and bass beats. Prior to this year’s long-awaited debut, her longest project was 2021’s to hell with it, featuring a concise ten tracks that last all of eighteen minutes. These high-energy, low-commitment songs take up an inoffensive amount of your time, while simultaneously making the most of it with the catchiest hooks you’ve ever heard.
On November 10th, 2023, she released her first studio album Heaven knows, which finds her getting comfortable with taking up space and time, exploring songwriting as a more meditative practice with more fleshed-out tracks. These newer cuts are no longer quippy ideas whose potential remains only half-explored; rather she utilizes fully realized, extended song structures. This album features her longest song to date, “Capable of Love,” a perfect showcase of her emphasis on meditative songwriting and lingering emotional exploration. She explores ideas of uncertainty in love as she walks us through her thoughts and fears in her lyrics while still, in true PinkPantheress fashion, centering an infectious hook of instrumental swells and rapid drum beats.
The journey that Walker takes us on throughout the tracklist is truly one of love and doubt, and her songwriting meditates in this headspace, one of a young girl navigating the complexities of self-discovery in romance. Complemented by a great feature from Rema, the tight opener “Another Life” instantly presents those themes to the listener, but makes it clear that this is still the PinkPantheress that we know and love: the rhythmic and bassy pop beat show a loyalty to her trademark sound. It also stands as the album’s most effective use of a featured artist. The other two—Central Cee on “Nice to meet you” and Kelela on “Bury me”—result in songs that lack the same heart, falling into a more formulaic bucket of commercial tracks with tacked-on features.
The record is riddled with whooping bass beats, danceable rhythms, and girly charm. “True romance” and “Mosquito” encapsulate dreamy, dizzying visions of love that win you over with their charm. On “True Romance,” she narrates a romance with a well-known celebrity, as camera-shutters and audience cheers bolster the beat. She truly captures the feeling of being one amongst a crowd of adoring fans while having feelings for the person: you can get lost in the overwhelming—and often parasocial—world of fame as she repeats “I’m in the crowd, can you see my hand?” “Mosquito” opens with a single warped guitar reminiscent of To hell with it. She delves into her naive devotion to a lover over a rhythmic beat. The true melodrama of the situation is beautifully illustrated by her repeated lyric “I just had a dream I was dead / and I only cared ‘cause I was taken from you.”
By far the most immersive song on this project comes is “Blue,” which opens with an intergalactically warped instrumental that transitions into a rhythmic electronic drum beat. The lyrics themselves document a once-promising relationship that always had troubling flaws. She ponders the time wasted and the stress that amounted to nothing, as a thumping drum pounds alongside her anxious thoughts. Despite the meditative nature of the lyrics, this track possesses the same danceability and infectiousness in its rhythms that have become staples of her music. Hopefulness and vitality reverberate throughout as a symptom of her youthful outlook. In the end, any mistakes she’s made in love are sure to become distant memories, as she truly has nothing but time.
The maturation of PinkPantheress’ sound on Heaven knows showcases undeniable potential for her to become a household name in the rhythmic pop realm. She’s exploring more fleshed out song structures and more involved production, while still staying true to the calling cards that made her a viral success. The record truly captures the essence of what it is to be a young girl experiencing romance in all of its whimsicalness, along with all its melodrama. These tracks make you want to lay on a bed, paint your nails, and kick your feet in the air with bliss like a teenage girl. PinkPantheress has uncovered a world of possibilities for herself, and I look forward to following her exploration of her craft.
edited by Campbell Conard.
album artwork believed to belong to either the publisher of the work or the artist.