Pale Waves Unveils an Emo-Driven Soundtrack with "Unwanted"

If 2000’s pop punk and emo music were the soundtrack of your life at any point, you will get that same feeling when listening to Pale Waves’ new album, Unwanted. Pale Waves consists of Heather Baron-Gracie (Vocals/Guitar), Hugo Silvani (Guitar), Charlie Wood (Bass), and Ciara Doran (Drums). Their new album gives you all of the nostalgic sounds of Avril Lavigne and My Chemical Romance-- with a queer perspective. After dipping into heavier genres in their last album, Unwanted further explores that sound. 

“Unwanted,” being the title track, gives you the energy of this album; looking into the feelings of being unwanted and how they’ve dealt with it. In songs “The Hard Way” and “Numb” you hear the perspectives of what feeling unwanted can lead to. “The Hard Way” is a song to bring awareness of people who struggle with depression, in memoriam of a class member who had taken their life after dealing with bullying. 

“Reasons To Live” gives hope as it tells a story of meeting someone who gives you a ‘reason to live,’ and teaches you lessons on how to love yourself more; “Jealousy” and “Clean” are other songs that also talk about love. Heather Baron-Gracie, the singer of Pale Waves, would say, “This song is for all my jealous types,” before starting “Jealousy” on their recent shows while on tour with 5 Seconds of Summer (5SOS).

Another song they played was “Lies.” Talking with people who discovered Pale Waves on their tour with 5SOS, this is one of the favorite songs off of Unwanted. As the first track, it opens the album with Heather’s killer vocals and massive guitar. This is an amazing song while on tour, and a great way to start off their third album.

Pale Waves is going on a North American headline tour this fall, where they are bound to present plenty of the new songs from Unwanted!  They put on a great show, have a magnetic energy, and if you get to meet any of the members, they are beyond sweet people!