Album Review: PinkPanthress - Heaven Knows
Sophomore full-length release from the Somerset sensation represents an adventurous but plush next step.
It’s been two-and-a-half years since PinkPantheress burst onto the scene with “Pain”, a reworking of British garage classic “Flowers”. From the off, the medley of traditional electronic production and a contemporary vocal overlay was a formula that felt fairly fail-proof. She continued in that vein, with the release of debut album To hell with it and particularly single “I Must Apologise” later that year slowly turning the heads and winning the respect of “oontz-oontz”-heads in the UK and beyond. A further watershed moment awaited in early 2023, following a linkup with internet royalty Ice Spice on earworm “Boy’s a liar”, with the product being a litany of curious eyes on the release of Heaven Knows.
One of the instantly discernible qualities of the new album is the impeccable feature selection. On intro track “Another life”, afrorave poster-boy Rema fits into the spooky backing track like a glove, contrasted with Pantheress’ deceptively blasé lyrics (“I guess you died today?... At least now we’ll get all the time apart / Guess I’ll see you in another life”). It’s a pleasure to see underground mainstay Kelela get some recognition on “Bury me”, even if it’s startling to hear this collaboration over a drill beat. Pantheress is renowned for delivering short and snappy track lengths, and it arguably contributes to her refreshing approach to creativity, but with a runtime of 2 minutes and 4 seconds on this one, it does feel a bit like the track unnecessarily truncates itself before it can really come to life.
The indisputable collaborative success on this album arrives on “Nice to meet you” with one of the UK hip-hop scene’s most eminent exports of recent years, Central Cee. If you haven’t heard it yet, you will; it’s a track that feels absolutely massive. The beat flips fluidly, switching from a garage song to a trap instrumental and vice versa at a moment’s notice. The keyboard is top of the bill throughout, with the reverb perfect and the accompanying drums complementing flawlessly. The drill rapper adds a pretty comical tinge to the hit (“Long story short, we don’t talk no more / Now she on TikTok doin’ story time”).
Some of the album tracks I can take or leave; None of “The aisle”, “Feel complete” and “Feelings” set the world alight, but even the filler content is nice on the ears, even if it passes you by somewhat.
The album finishes nicely, though. “Ophelia” signals a return to the oddly nonchalant death-themed lyrical content we saw on track 1, with a pretty cool Shakespearean-inspired narrative detailing a PinkPantheress death scene in which just when she thinks someone has heard her cries and is coming to save her, it’s just her manifestation of Hamlet making sure she’s actually dead. This is the tenderest that production on this album gets, with what sounds like a harp the leading instrument, alongside a dainty piano and some simple percussion which comes in pretty far down in the mix. The track finishes neatly with a drum-and-bass pattern that threatens to break out of its shackles at the mix’s depths, but ultimately sinks and plunges with a cartoonish bubbles sound effect. Moments like these are the main points of separation from a production perspective between this album and the last; it feels as though the beats were worked on alongside, and not before, the vocals. The presence of PinkPantheress’ name on many of the production credits for songs on this project would seem to support this.
“Blue” continues the reflective turn in the album’s narrative, with Pantheress seeming to reach a moment of clarity and realism vis-à-vis her lopsided desire for someone (“I based my life on your face… I realised / Can’t copy you anymore / Think of you anymore / Hang with you anymore”) while maintaining a catchy hook that, as always, manages to avoid that feeling of cynical algorithmic pop.
“Capable for love”, the effective closer, is one of my favourite PP tracks full stop. The lyrical content isn’t too different to the rest of the album, but the production feels so rich and layered from the second one, and the melodic crooning of the chorus complements it adroitly. The drums sound sophisticated and pick and choose their moments to perfection. Hearing this and going back to her songs from a couple of years ago makes those breakout hits sound cookie-cutter and formulaic, which of course they’re not. I’m also a sucker for a song outro that sounds like someone’s lobbed a microphone into the woods and let it record for 30 seconds (see Frank Ocean’s cover of “Moon River” for the perfect illustration), and the outro for this is no different.
It’s not an industry-shattering piece of work, but the progression from To hell with it to Heaven Knows is impressive, primarily on a production front, and it’s also nice to see some more complex narratives woven into PP’s lyrics. It’s got radio hits and moody cuts, and it sounds like a step forward for the genre rather than a fruitless contribution that may similar artists have ultimately conjured up in 2023.