Heaven knows

AlbumNov 10 / 202313 songs, 34m 15s98%
Contemporary R&B Alt-Pop Electronic Dance Music
Popular Highly Rated

PinkPantheress’ debut album, *Heaven knows*, opens with the sound of a scaling church organ and heavy rainfall. It’s a grand entrance that’s as fitting for this album’s title as it is perhaps surprising for the artist behind it. But if PinkPantheress broke out thanks to the propulsive, UKG- and D’n’B-shaped pop she’d crafted in her bedroom (and her songs’ wild social-media success), the beginnings of *Heaven knows* feel like an acknowledgment—or a declaration—that she’s outgrown its four walls. Sometimes, that feels literal: “True romance” finds her amid the screaming crowds and clicking cameras of a show as she heralds her love for someone much more famous than her. It’s either a sign of the company she keeps these days (“Every song is about you/And everybody’s shouting out your name”) or a play on the darker side of fan obsession (“I know you’re older/But I really know I’m sure/Held my ticket since they landed at my door/I’ve been a fan of you since 2004/You know you got me”). But this album is also a broadening of her musical world, the songs here—made with collaborators including Greg Kurstin (Adele, Gorillaz, Foo Fighters), Mura Masa, Cash Cobain, Danny L Harle (Caroline Polachek) and Oscar Scheller (Ashnikko, Charli XCX, Rina Sawayama)—are noticeably more expansive than those on 2021’s star-confirming mixtape *To hell with it*. You can expect all the nostalgic sounds and breakbeats that defined that release and made the Kent-raised singer-songwriter/producer famous. But also disco (on the excellent “The aisle”), ’90s R&B (“Mosquito” and “Feel complete,” which sounds like it could have been written for a girl group), rock wig-outs (“Capable of love”), and flourishes of strings, church bells and even birdsong en route. (There are also songs that pass the three-minute mark.) Plus, plenty of collaborations, as Pink recruits a crop of culture-shaping artists to appear alongside her: Rema, Kelela, Central Cee, and, of course, Ice Spice, with whom she reached global domination in summer 2023 with “Boy’s a liar, Pt. 2.” All of which is united by the story of a troubled relationship, the album’s emo-shaped lyricism frequently blurring the lines between heartbreak and death and love and obsession (“You’re not quite stuck with me, but one day you’ll be,” she sings on “The aisle”). It could feel sinister, if her voice—and increasingly boundless, future-facing hyperpop—weren’t quite so sweet. By the time *Heaven knows* closes out with “Boy’s a liar, Pt. 2,” it’s a reminder of the astronomical heights PinkPantheress reached before even announcing her debut. But right in the middle of it, she hints that—despite her social-media beginnings—she can be anything she wants to be. “I am not your internet baby,” she repeats insistently on “Internet baby (interlude).” “I am not your internet baby.”

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6.4 / 10

The debut album from the young pop figure transforms her jittery, emotional miniatures into songs that feel more extroverted, more joyful, and sometimes more complete.

6.4 / 10

The debut album from the young pop figure transforms her jittery, emotional miniatures into songs that feel more extroverted, more joyful, and sometimes more complete.

8 / 10

8 / 10

The generational artist explores vast ideas of death and obsession on an album that expands her sound beautifully

8 / 10

Heaven knows is a level-up on all fronts.

The generational artist explores vast ideas of death and obsession on an album that expands her sound beautifully

8 / 10

Heaven knows is a level-up on all fronts.

7.8 / 10

PinkPantheress' internet-famous, addictive pop persona and mystique come to life on Heaven knows. Read our review.

She continues to write tunes that stick

7.8 / 10

PinkPantheress' internet-famous, addictive pop persona and mystique come to life on Heaven knows. Read our review.

She continues to write tunes that stick

PinkPantheress' debut album, 'Heaven Knows,' finds the British singer and songwriter shaping her own reality through tales of death and obsession.

PinkPantheress' debut album, 'Heaven Knows,' finds the British singer and songwriter shaping her own reality through tales of death and obsession.

As if a Y2K Shakespeare were musing on sticky sweet star-crossed love amid metaphors for abandonment on a bedazzled Motorola Razr.

As if a Y2K Shakespeare were musing on sticky sweet star-crossed love amid metaphors for abandonment on a bedazzled Motorola Razr.

7 / 10

"I am not your internet baby," PinkPantheress sings on her debut album Heaven knows — a repeated refrain in which she explicitly distances h...

7 / 10

"I am not your internet baby," PinkPantheress sings on her debut album Heaven knows — a repeated refrain in which she explicitly distances h...

9 / 10

She has TikTok in the palm of her hand - young starlet PinkPantheress has taken the internet by storm since 2021 with her alternative early 2000s inspired

9 / 10

She has TikTok in the palm of her hand - young starlet PinkPantheress has taken the internet by storm since 2021 with her alternative early 2000s inspired

The Londoner’s highly anticipated debut album is strongest when playing to millennial nostalgia while giving Gen Z something new

The Londoner’s highly anticipated debut album is strongest when playing to millennial nostalgia while giving Gen Z something new

PinkPantheress’s debut studio album, ‘Heaven Knows,’ is a full-throated pop effort with an eye on contemporary trends.

PinkPantheress’s debut studio album, ‘Heaven Knows,’ is a full-throated pop effort with an eye on contemporary trends.

7.5 / 10

Heaven knows by PinkPantheress album review by Jay Fullarton for Northern Transmissions. The artist full-length is out via 300 Entertainment

7.5 / 10

Heaven knows by PinkPantheress album review by Jay Fullarton for Northern Transmissions. The artist full-length is out via 300 Entertainment

The 22-year-old star from Kent has written about a psychopathic Hamlet, stalker fans and dead corpses in her impressive debut album

The 22-year-old star from Kent has written about a psychopathic Hamlet, stalker fans and dead corpses in her impressive debut album

The Kent native’s debut album struggles to sustain itself over a meagre 34 minutes

The Kent native’s debut album struggles to sustain itself over a meagre 34 minutes

TikTok phenomenon levels up on confident debut album. New music review by HArry Thorfinn-George

TikTok phenomenon levels up on confident debut album. New music review by HArry Thorfinn-George