Pale Waves returns with "Gravity," the new cut from their upcoming LP, Smitten, and one of their most viscerally honest offerings. The moody, melancholic anthem oozes with vulnerability and finds the frontwoman, Heather Baron-Gracie, reflecting on the painful experience of loving someone who ultimately chose heavy faith over their relationship.
"Gravity' is a song about a woman who picked Jesus over me," Heather says. "It took longer than any of the other songs on the album to get there. We must have rewritten it a million times to get to where it is now." That painstaking effort is evident. Every note, every lyric, something like a purposeful opening of a wound for catharsis.
"Gravity" balances Pale Waves' signature shimmering guitars with a darker undercurrent to mirror the weight of its subject matter. Heather's vocals are drenched with painful sincerity, climbing and cracking in all the right places as she contemplates love lost to an attack she can't battle against. It's the kind of song you can't shake long after the last note fades away. It's melodic but devastating, intimate yet universally grasped.
With "Gravity," Pale Waves encapsulate that gut-wrenching feeling that sometimes love isn't enough to keep someone around. If this song is any indication, Smitten promises to be their most personal and arresting work yet.