Album reviews: Pale Waves – Who am I? and Django Django – Glowing in the Dark

On their second album, Pale Waves continue to wear their influences on their sleeves, while Django Django offer some much-needed illumination

Pale Waves in cover art for their new album (Dirty Hit)

Pale Waves – Who am I?

★★☆☆☆

When Avril Lavigne first broke out in the early 2000s, few could've guessed the impact she would have on her youngest listeners. Today, a new crop of indie performers cite Lavigne – and her brassy brand of MTV-friendly pop suffused with snarling rage against the machine – as a major influence: Soccer Mommy, Snail Mail, Phoebe Bridgers... And then there's pop-punk imprint Pale Waves, whose lead singer Heather Baron-Gracie says Lavigne is not just an influence, but the influence. Pales Waves’ second album, Who Am I?, is rife with sweet-and-sour hooks and teen-friendly anthems.

The progressive, be-yourself intention is sincere, but unfortunately just comes off like a Depop ad interrupting an episode of Riverdale. Even when Lavigne sang about life being like this, it was less on the nose than Pale Waves' after school special sentiments: “I know the magazines say to be skinny”; “Don't listen to society”; “You better cross your legs, ‘cus that's not very ladylike”. 

Pale Waves' intentions are as honourable as Ned Stark leading an anti-drugs talk at school, and Baron-Gracie opting to use female pronouns on “She's My Religion” is an exciting moment of LGBTQ+ representation (could Lavigne have done the same in her day, had she wanted to? Unlikely). And yet: despite the album’s slick production and radio-ready melodies, one wishes Pale Waves could find a more sophisticated language to express youthful enlightenment. RB

Django Django – Glowing in the Dark

★★★★☆

Django Django had the kind of beginning most bands both dream of and dread. Their self-titled debut was a surprise hit in 2012, earning critical raves, a Mercury Prize nomination, and charting in the UK Top 40.

They did well to gather themselves after such an onslaught of unexpected hype. Others might have crumbled under the pressure, but Django Django went on to release two strong follow-ups, including 2018’s Eighties synth-pop-indebted Marble Skies. Their latest, Glowing in the Dark, is an ambitious reach for new heights.

Previously dubbed “prog-indie alchemists” by The Guardian, Django Django here set about creating gold on tracks such as “Headrush”, a shuffling joyride of perky basslines and frontman Dave Maclean’s Beach Boys croon. On “Waking Up”, guest Charlotte Gainsbourg’s ghostly whispers emulate faded glamour of her father Serge’s 1968 outlaw epic “Bonnie & Clyde”. “Kick the Devil Out” has a cosmic energy; the title track is an entire solar system of whirling Moog synths and otherworldly vocals. In these glum times, Glowing in the Dark lives up to its title. ROC