PinkPantheress
Heaven Knows
WARNER
If you find yourself curious about the state of Gen Z’s pop music, look no further than Heaven Knows by British pop star PinkPantheress. Her proper debut album under Warner echoes the sounds and aesthetic of Y2K but in a whole new light. Having blown up on TikTok in 2021, her debut mixtape To Hell with It followed shortly after as an introduction to the musician’s self-produced contemporary R&B and narrative lyrics. On the rare occasion that those lyrics reflect her own experience, she’s honest but still maintains a sense of mystery rather than being open about her personal life.
She doesn’t need to be, though, because Heaven Knows still manages to speak directly to its target audience to invoke a sense of nostalgia for a time period that Gen Zers don’t even remember. As a teenage girl myself, when “Boy’s a Liar Pt. 2” came out it was the song my friends and I blasted in the car while yelling about all the boys that have hurt us. We memorized the song to a tee. There was something about it—about PinkPantheress’ music—that spoke to us.
After listening to Heaven Knows, it only becomes clearer that she’s got her finger on the pulse of the future of music and art in general, which ironically pulls from the early-’00s—she even notes fashion trends being recycled from this era, as evident in her music videos (see Charithra Chandran of Bridgerton casually wearing Heaven by Marc Jacobs in the video for “Mosquito”). Meanwhile, having Central Cee—another British artist who gained fame on TikTok—featured on the track list alongside established figures like Kelela and fellow up-and-comers such as Rema and Ice Spice (the latter being featured on the aforementioned “Boy’s a Liar” remix after the two musicians connected on Instagram) shows that she knows her market and also knows what will work with her music.
Yet what mostly sets PinkPantheress apart from the pop music of the past she references is the fact that she represents herself in a very feminine light without pandering to a male gaze, as early-’00s female pop stars were marketed to do. The fact that she produces her own music also shows a level of talent that’s unique to artists of her scale in contrast with those of two decades ago. PinkPantheress is ahead of the game and a young force to be reckoned with.
