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My Mind Makes Noises Image
Metascore
61

Generally favorable reviews - based on 10 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
7.1

Generally favorable reviews- based on 12 Ratings

  • Summary: The debut full-length release for the British indie pop band led by Heather Baron-Gracie was co-produced by The 1975's Matty Healy and George Daniel (as well as Jonathan Gilmore and the band's drummer Ciara Doran).
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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 10
  2. Negative: 1 out of 10
  1. 80
    Given that it documents a romantic life that’s apparently hurtling out of control, My Mind Makes Noises makes for a remarkably trim and measured collection of songs. Both hands are on the wheel, and this album will crank things up a gear for Pale Waves.
  2. Sep 13, 2018
    80
    For all their goth rock exterior, My Mind Makes Noises is ultimately a pop record with substance at its core.
  3. 80
    These young Mancunians have perfected what makes pop such an addictive, essential genre, and My Mind Makes Noises is both immediate and idiosyncratic. Pale Waves’ presence may be gloomy, but their songwriting and ambition could not be brighter.
  4. Q Magazine
    Sep 13, 2018
    60
    A promising start, but there's room for improvement. [Oct 2018, p.108]
  5. Sep 17, 2018
    60
    14 tracks stretches the hooks a little thin, but My Mind Makes Noises boasts pop craft to rival big-money production teams, and much better eyeliner to boot.
  6. 40
    It’s fine to be influenced by one particular band, but they need to find their own voice or risk being known as little more than The 1975’s pale imitators.
  7. Oct 19, 2018
    30
    Their style fits in between Chvrches and Taylor Swift’s 1989, though not up to that level of craft. Interesting moments, like the echoing guitar of There’s A Honey or the finger-snap rhythm of Loveless Girl, are drowned out by overstuffed songs with unmemorable melodies.

See all 10 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 2
  3. Negative: 1 out of 2
  1. Sep 14, 2018
    8
    It's like 80's pop and modern indie-rock get into a beautiful car crash while they're going to the prom. So the creature that emerges fromIt's like 80's pop and modern indie-rock get into a beautiful car crash while they're going to the prom. So the creature that emerges from this formula is the singer ghost of an emo-past.
    Beautiful debut album, I only wish they can grow both sonically and vocally cause the songs start blending one into each other at some point. Which it could be because it's a debut album and they were able to create their own sound, but in the other case it could be just a sort of music-formula that create a sense of one-trick pony.
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  2. Apr 19, 2020
    3
    In this economical system we are born to have a job, earn money, contribute, pay our taxes and then disappear. Having this in mind, a lot ofIn this economical system we are born to have a job, earn money, contribute, pay our taxes and then disappear. Having this in mind, a lot of artists in music history have put all their efforts to please the people whose iPods are full of music downloads. In the 1920s blues and jazz were the main genres while later that century rock became a global phenomenon and a must. This new millennium has only had twenty years, twenty years in which the popular music has constantly changed. In the beggining of the decade a new social dropout group appeared: gothics (which have now changed their name to "emos", which is thought to be cooler). This new group, which has grown stronger over the years, have been the ones who have consumed the most music due to x reasons. See so, every unknown artist made at least one of his songs in a gothic-pop genre in order to sell. Only knowing Pale Wave's "My Mind Makes Noises" album title it might transmit you that this will be a psychedelic, glitch-pop record but it isn't. This is what I call a fraud.
    This albums sounds lke the weirdest combination between Chvrches and a 2014 Taylor Swift officially stepping into the pop industry, Pale Waves have, in my opinion, intended to make a record that would bring every emo back to his gothic teenage years. And well I don't know if it has worked for them commercially but even an early emo friend of mine refuses to listen to more than 3 consecutive tracks on this album. She explains that it feels to her like a misshapened version of the band's Manchester colleagues The 1975. She also states that It is absolutely offensive that this band tries to take on a Gothic aesthetic while making music songs that would not feel out of place on a TS album or a 2005+ Avril Lavigne album.
    In conclusion, "My Mind Makes Noises" is a forced, boring, repetitive and (if I am permitted to) a bad album. That's it, its bad. This project sounds like a single 50-minutes long track that never ends despite all your efforts to make it dissapear. Maybe a couple less tracks or an aesthetic renovation would be great for the release of their second album.
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