If Pale Waves were around during the 1980’s they’d be soundtracking every coming of age movie around. The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Outsiders, The Lost Boys, you can name any adolescent movie from that era and you’d see them featured in it. Their previous album Who Am I showcased this with it walking polymerising the angst of youth, the intense emotion that comes with it and a sense of freedom through the instrumentals that soundtracks your day to make you feel like a main character. The band know how to find light within the darkness through their evocative lyrics, painting vivid pictures that the misfits of the world will find themselves within and realise they’re not alone in the world.
All of this is evident in Reasons to Live, a bold single focusing on a moment where the lead vocalist, Heather Baron-Gracie, felt devoid of happiness and believed she would never experience it again. That is until she met someone who made her realise that there are, like the title of the track suggests, reasons to live. It’s a wondrously uplifting single with a production that walks the fine line between the darkness she’s going through and the euphoria she’s experiencing now to make the whole piece feel more grounded. The lyrics are sublime with, “You are the medicine to get me by / You are the therapy to ease my mind,” being my personal favourite throughout the track and Baron-Gracie’s voice matches this energy beat for beat.