There’s plenty of noise out there about 24-year-old Kentish musician Victoria Walker, AKA PinkPantheress. Since being acclaimed BBC Sound of 2022, the spotlight has been on her. She supported Halsey and Olivia Rodrigo on tour, worked with Beabadoobee, Skrillex, and K-Pop sensations Le SSerafim, and had a song on the Barbie soundtrack. It’s a lot. Perhaps, judging from this mixtape – a 20-minute filler release we might once have called an EP – she’s spreading herself too thin.
The idea is that Fancy That tips its hat to millennial dance sounds and, indeed, it features Basement Jaxx’ music on “Romeo”. But these 10 tracks, averaging around two-and-a-half minutes each, drift along almost unnoticeably, a tentative 4/4 plod that fluffs sweetly by. It’s the sort of thing that might be on in a trendy shoe shop, and you wouldn’t remember a thing about it after you’d left.
PinkPantheress is a social media vibe, a Tik Tok-friendly presence touted as a star. Her schtick is ultra-meta, channelling old sounds into light edgeless pastiche snippets. She’s capable of making that interesting, as in the past on cuts such as “Pain”, “Take Me Home”, and “Boy’s a Liar Pt. 2”, songs that are catchy, quirky and tuneful, centring her airy voice within a cocktail lounge appeal. On such numbers, she’s slightly redolent of early Lily Allen.
But on Fancy That, despite – or perhaps because of – a plethora of SO RIGHT NOW songwriter-producers-for-hire, such as The Dare and aksel arvid [sic] – the songs aren’t there. The production occasionally curveballs somewhere interesting, as on the bleep'n'bass opening to the best track, “Stateside”. And the sudden spoken word interjections add flavour, as on the lushly string-synth-laced “Nice to Know”. Overall, though, this feels like a place-holder, likely with a snappy supportive social media campaign. As a solely musical experience, it’s bland.
Below: watch the video for "Stateside" by PinkPantheress
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