While it’s not as compellingly moving, ‘Heaven Knows’ is nevertheless an effective maturation of PinkPantheress’ sound.
As much as PinkPantheress’ UK Garage debut mixtape has moved numbers, there is something to be said about her emotive writing that tells a lot of her emotional wisdom. Best showcased in ‘Nineteen’ where she is now aware of a world that will move on without her, PinkPantheress now has to find space for herself amidst her attainable success, one that eventually netted her a momentous chart-topping single with ‘Boy’s a liar Pt. 2’ featuring Ice Spice. Despite having that success, she still finds herself uneasy with fame, especially when it’s going to be a lot more difficult to connect with relationships that will just pass her by.
‘Heaven Knows’ is the debut album from PinkPantheress that carries a lot of familiar elements from her debut mixtape, but is now handled with a lot more posh and punch with more assistance from Greg Kurstin, Mura Masa, amongst others. This also means that her melodies get a lot snappier as a result. Such cases are the sharp shuffling breakbeat of ‘True Romance’ where PinkPantheress gracefully coos through the compact rhythms, the glimmering acoustic pop R&B of ‘Ophelia’ and ‘Mosquito’ where the silk-sounding harp strings of the former and the guitar strums of the latter were elevated with textured percussion, ‘Feel Complete’ with all the fleeting guitars, moving strings, and gossamer synths all pass from one direction to another, and the bombastic soars of ‘Capable of love’ and ‘Another life (feat. Rema)’ that remarkably nestles well with PinkPantheress’ soft delivery.
The polish in the overall production also represents the maturity that PinkPantheress has gotten in her writing, with less shying around the relationship, and more embracing the extroverted side of her. Expounding a lot of life and death metaphors on cuts like ‘Another Life’ and ‘Bury Me’ adds a dramatic flair to how PinkPantheress writes her experiences with relationships that crumble apart at the end. And even if the fame she garnered allows her to be more engaged despite her uncomfortable thoughts on her success, the relationships that she explores on this record are uneasy in different ways. From her feelings not being reciprocated on ‘True Romance’, being cheated and lied to on ‘Nice to meet you’, being financially used on ‘Feel Complete’, or straight up not being there for her on ‘The Aisle’, those frustrations eventually pile up on ‘Blue’ up to ‘Capable of love’ where PinkPantheress is now doubting herself after being dumped by guys that she sticks for a short. However, she does pull herself together in ‘Boy’s a liar Pt.2’ where she realizes that those relationships were never worth it in the first place.
Mature and more varied is what the project mostly gets right, although some of the production, melodies, and features do not exactly hit as much as they need to be. On the aspects of features, while Rema and Ice Spice work well on the songs that they’re part of (especially Rema with his voluminous haze on ‘Another life’), Kelela’s presence on ‘Bury Me’ sounded plastered on due to the dull chorus, and Central Cee - despite fitting on the obnoxiousness found on ‘Nice to meet you’ - his performance is the weakest, not helped by his verse being plain and sloppy. And in terms of melodies and production, ‘Bury Me’ with its whirring low-end and cascading twinkles are wasted on the repetitive melody, ‘The aisle’ overall feels like a throwaway from the ‘to hell with it’ mixtape, and the trap percussion used on few tracks in this project are thin-skinned and doesn’t match with the warmer textured beats on a lot of the cuts.
‘Heaven Knows’ is uneven as a result, where there are just aspects of the features, production, and melodies that don’t stand up to the best moments of the record. Even then, there are ample great moments that allow PinkPantheress to glide to variations of styles and textures that complement her soft vocal presence alongside her writing that embraces a lot of growth and maturity since her debut mixtape a few years ago. A patchy project that positively offers more than taking away her strengths, it’s a step in the right direction regarding where PinkPantheress wants to go. She might still feel uneasy about where she stands currently, but the heavens above will eventually light her way to the place she wants herself to be in.
Favorite Tracks: ‘Another Life (ft. Rema)’, ‘True Romance’, ‘ Mosquito’, ‘Ophelia’, ‘Feel complete’, ‘Capable of love’
Least Favorite Track: ‘Nice To Meet You’