PinkPantheress: New Nostalgic
On PinkPantheress’ “Last Valentines,” a solemn and gloomy guitar rhythm, which pulls from Linkin Park’s “Forgotten,” plays out in tandem with a skittering drum beat, establishing an angsty and chaotic soundscape. The foreboding mood the production displays work harmoniously with the lyrics of the track, which recall a tale of a young woman who intentionally puts herself in harm’s way to reignite the love of a former flame. PinkPantheress’ words sung near the beginning of the song, “I’d risk my life, for a chance you’d come back to me,” crystalizes the appeal of the artist, this adolescent and fragile temperament that surmises the project.
PinkPanktheress is an English-born Gen-Zer who has recently made a name for herself with viral songs on TikTok. Her unique aesthetic, an airy voice sung over fast and hard-hitting breakbeat drums with a deep sense of affinity for the late 1990s and early 2000s through its samples, made her a breakout star on the app and recently led her to be signed to the European-based record label Parlophone. Her unique style capped off with a mysterious persona the artist has generated has raised her profile, making her audience wonder if she can maintain this fame. Her recently-released debut mixtape To Hell with It definitively declares that she is not a one-and-done artist.
To Hell with It is pretty uniform in how it approaches production on its eighteen-minute runtime. A drum-and-beat style that serves as a base for the unique samples that PinkPanthress pulls for the songs, ranging from lighter artists like Sweet Female Attitude to forceful, more abrasive groups, like Linkin Park. This may seem formulaic from the outside looking in, but PinkPantheress’ eclectic placement of samples keeps the project fresh, with the mood alternating on a song-by-song basis. Upbeat songs like “Just For Me” and “All My Friends Know” oscillate with moodier cuts like “Last Valentines” and “Pain” creating an engaging experience for the listener.
The most distinctive aspect of the artist is her voice. PinkPantheress’ singing style is light, unassuming, and girlish, which is in perfect synch with the diary-like nature of the intimate lyrics. The project deals in well-trodden teenage themes like heartbreak, loneliness, and angst, often reading as inner-narration of characters from films and television shows like Twilight, Donnie Darko, and The Vampire Diaries. Her thematic nature may sound alienating to more mature audiences, but To Hell With It could appeal to Millenials, a slightly older generation to PinkPantheress’ Gen-Z age group.
Nostalgia is trendy now, with reboots of numerous movies, tv shows, and video games announced on a seemingly daily basis, perhaps to comfort people after a pandemic immensely impacted life as we know it. To Hell with It, and PinkPanthress as an artist, appeals to this nostalgic trend. Listening to her music feels like escaping into a more youthful time, spent playing video games like SSX, Jet Set Radio, and Tony Hawk after a long day of school. You spent your whole day worrying about tests if this person liked me or not, and whatever personal hell that entails primary school, and you just wanted to decompress. Those games, complete with their diverse soundtracks, provided an escape. To Hell With It can occupy a similar exhale in this perplexing time.
Rating: 8/10
Recommended Tracks: Last Valentines, All My Friends Know and I Must Apologize
