Smitten is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Pale Waves. It was released on 27 September 2024 by the independent record label Dirty Hit. Co-produced by Simon Oscroft, Iain Berryman, and Hugo Silvani, Smitten was recorded in both Los Angeles and London, with production beginning in late 2023. Unlike the band's previous albums Who Am I? (2021) and Unwanted (2022), Smitten is closer in style to the group's earlier jangle-inspired synth-pop sound.
The lyrics on Smitten were largely inspired by lead singer Heather Baron-Gracie's reflections on her teenage diary, as well as her meditation on the emotions of early queer relationships; this resulted in a record that Baron-Gracie later described as "romantic, delicate, and feminine". Musically, the record was inspired by musicians like Kelsea Ballerini, Kacey Musgraves, and Dolores O'Riordan of the Cranberries. Critics have also noted the influence of popular 80s bands like the Cure and Cocteau Twins.
According to review aggregators Metacritic and AnyDecentMusic?, Smitten received mostly positive reviews, with critics praising the record's ambitious pop hooks, its mature songwriting, and its return to the band's original synth-pop sound. Criticism was directed at the album's sound for being too simplistic. Smitten debuted at number 13 on the UK Albums Chart and at number three on the UK Independent Albums Chart. To support the album, music videos for the songs "Perfume", "Glasgow", "Gravity", and "Thinking About You" were released.
Production
Inspiration and writing
Pale Waves began to work on the songs that would comprise Smitten soon after the release of their 2022 album Unwanted, with the band's lead singer and guitarist Heather Baron-Gracie served as primary songwriter. When asked about the nature of these songs in a 2023 interview with Kerrang! magazine, Baron-Gracie responded: "All of my attention and energy is going into writing and recording our best album yet. Ultimately, that's about building a world that feels like Pale Waves, while also feeling completely different to anywhere we've inhabited before. We're creating another universe for our fans to explore, and for us to live in for a moment."
The album's lyrical themes were inspired by Baron-Gracie's choice to revisit her "long-forgotten" teenage diary and explore any emotional material she happened to come across. This, in turn, led her to pen songs that reflected on the totality of her romantic experiences. Baron-Gracie ultimately welcomed the chance to revisit the past, as it allowed her to realise that as people mature, they become more open to reflecting on parts of their lives that they may have previously blocked out. Many of the songs on Smitten came to focus on "the excitement and euphoria as well as the confusion and pain of early queer relationships". Others were influenced by Baron-Gracie's own journey of self-discovery, namely her belief that she should fully embrace her queer sexuality, self-love, and ultimately be "comfortable and confident" in who she is.
During the songwriting process, the band would often "sit down with an acoustic guitar" and experiment with musical snippets or ideas, constructing a song as they went. Once Baron-Gracie had worked out a portion of a song with which she was satisfied, she would record a rough take as a voice memo on her phone.Pale Waves (2025), 10:0710:40.
Recording The album was co-produced by Simon Oscroft, Iain Berryman, and Hugo Silvani (lead guitarist of Pale Waves). Previously, Oscroft had produced songs by OneRepublic, the Naked and Famous, and the Aces, whereas Berryman had co-produced fellow Dirty Hit artist Beabadoobee's album Beatopia (2022). When asked by Rock Sound how the band decided to work with Oscroft, Baron-Gracie said: "I met Simon when we wrote 'Seeing Stars' together, and I instantly knew that I wanted to write the majority of the record with him ... As a writer and producer, he's so talented, and he understands what I'm going for. ... He's very optimistic and positive. That's what you need when you're writing music, because it can get quite challenging and intense."
Half of the album was recorded in Los Angeles under the direction of Oscroft, and the other half was recorded in Eastbourne and London at Ten87 Studios under the direction of Berryman and Silvani. Initially, Pale Waves had intended for the tracks recorded by Oscroft to serve as demos that the group would then rework upon their return to England. When Pale Waves began to re-record the songs, Baron-Gracie felt that the new versions lacked the raw, emotional "magic" of the originals. To resolve this issue, the band decided to incorporate the vocal takes Baron-Gracie had recorded with Oscroft into the final mix of the album. According to Pale Waves' drummer, Ciara Doran, the band recorded their parts in Eastbourne at a time of the year when it was "cold" and "dark" and recalled that they had a positive experience there.
Most of Baron-Gracie's guitar parts were recorded using a 1980s Fender Stratocaster, a 1965 Fender Mustang that the band's manager Jamie Oborne had gifted her, and a 12-string Vox Phantom that Matty Healy of the 1975 had given to her for her birthday years prior.Pale Waves (2025), 12:4110:40. For his parts, Silvani mainly used a 1970s Fender Telecaster, which he had also received as a gift from Oborne.Pale Waves (2025), 12:5013:03. Pedals used by the band included a Roland Echo unit, a DOD chorus pedal, and Big Muffs for any "heavy" sounds. The band also employed both Fender Twin and Vox AC30 guitar amplifiers.
Music and lyrics
Pale Waves intended Smitten to be a "romantic, delicate, and feminine" record, whose jangly guitars and powerful choruses reflected the band's "retro-pop and gothic influences". For this reason, many critics have noted sonic similarities between Smitten and the band's debut album, My Mind Makes Noises (2018). Much of the album's sound was informed by country musicians like Kelsea Ballerini and Kacey Musgraves, whose recordings often rely on acoustic guitar and vocals alone. In terms of singing style, Heather Baron-Gracie wanted her vocals to be less intense than those on Unwanted. She therefore gravitated toward the work of Dolores O'Riordan, lead singer of the Cranberries: "I've learned that my voice is more like [O'Riordan]," she noted in an interview. "It wants to be Celtic-sounding, free, and fragile, rather than hitting those solid, huge notes." Critics have further compared the style of Smitten to the music of the Cure, the Sundays, and Cocteau Twins.
The album opens with "Glasgow", which Baron-Gracie described as a track about "leaving someone because you know it's no good for either of you anymore". NME characterised the song as "bittersweet" and "80s-sounding", with a "soaring" chorus. The second song on the album, "This is Not a Love Song", was written about Baron-Gracie's experience being someone's romantic "experiment": Despite promises that their relationship would last, it ultimately fell apart due her suitor's lack of commitment. Baron-Gracie later told Dork magazine that, while painful, the experience had taught her the importance of being her partner's "first choice". The third track on the record, "Gravity" is a "bright", "dreamy", and "guitar-forward" song that focuses on the "torment of being dragged in different directions by a lover who can't choose between their relationship or their religion". In an interview with The Honey Pop, Baron-Gracie explained: "It's about my relationship that I had with a woman who was struggling with her religion and her sexuality and, in the end, chose Jesus over me." Doran recalled that Baron-Gracie attempted several different iterations of "Gravity" before settling on the version that appeared on the album.
"Thinking About You" is a "tender goth-pop excursion" whose lyrics Baron-Gracie wrote to explore "a situation when someone leaves and you can't quite fully move on yet". The following track "Perfume" explores the excitement of new love and, in the words of Atwood Magazine, the "complexity that comes with the beginning of a relationship". Baron-Gracie initially worried that the song's lyrics were too simple, but the catchiness soon grew on her, and in time she came to liken them to the lyrics of a Spice Girls song. Prominently featuring "jangly, rhythmic guitar" and vocals "reminiscent of The Cranberries", "Perfume" sees "the band's gothic impulses coming to the fore". Several publications – such as Atwood Magazine, NME, and Under the Radar – have further argued that the track evokes the retro-pop sound of the band's early releases. In contrast, "Last Train Home" is a slower, more "contemplative ballad" which Atwood Magazine suggests "reverses the roles from 'Not a Love Song'", by having "the singer [mourn] the demise of a past relationship they weren't able to commit to".
"Kiss Me Again" explores fleeting romance, impulsive attraction, and the thrill of a one-night stand. Musically, the track is infused with a "soft punk vibe", with Baron-Gracie describing it as a "really fun energetic pop song". "Miss America", which was originally envisioned as an acoustic song,Pale Waves (2025), 8:169:00. finds Baron-Gracie reflecting on past mistakes, while "Hate to Hurt You" explores the discomfort and regret that come with causing pain to others. "Seeing Stars", which Dork magazine has described as a "dreamy slice of head-over-heels romance", was the product of the band's months-long struggle to settle on a cohesive "vision" for Smitten. It was only after Baron-Gracie wrote 'Seeing Stars' and presented it to the other members of Pale Waves that the group felt they had found the album's right "sound". "The rest [of the record] kind of followed", Baron-Gracie told Wonderland magazine. Smitten closes with the "Imagination" and "Slow", which Dork contends function as a "one-two [finale] ... delivered with a scrappy alt-rock snarl".
Title and cover When thinking of a potential title for the album, Baron-Gracie wanted to use a single, definitive word that could capture the record's lyrical, musical, and thematic essence. Since the album centres around queer romance, she ultimately decided on the word "smitten". Baron-Gracie felt that the word not only captured the album's aesthetic but also had a "timeless" quality and a distinctly English charm. When the album title was settled upon, the band then turned their attention to the record's cover. In an interview with Rock Sound Baron-Gracie explained that the final result was conceived by her and her partner, Kelsi Luck:
Originally, I wanted to be lying in the English countryside as the sun was setting. I wanted it to feel quite lonely, but romantic. ... [Luck] creates all the visuals with me, and her ideas are usually way better than mine. She said, 'You can't just have that, that'll be boring. Why don't you have a chandelier hanging above you?' Immediately, I thought that was genius, so we made it happen. Somehow, it looks even better than it did in my head. Out of everything this band has done, the visuals for 'Smitten' are easily my favourite.
Promotion and singles