In 2020, on my old TikTok account, I remember there was a time that I would obtain many mutuals (people who would follow you back), one of them being this girl with the Powerpuff girl Buttercup as her profile picture with a few thousand followers. She would post these videos of her face hidden with perhaps one eye showing to the side or a view from the top of her hair with her legs walking fast to where you cannot see her face, often playing eclectic music she made in Garageband, usually early 90s to 2000s UK garage samples with that light voice of hers being played overtop it. This, my friends, is PinkPantheress.
Fancy That by PinkPantheress contains some of the longest songs she’s made to date, with the nine-song album being a whopping 20 minutes and 33 seconds long, an improvement from her earlier days. The marketing and worldbuilding for this album have been amazing, incorporating this embrace of British visuals and self-definition of what being British is through younger artists, especially Black artists like PinkPantheress, or others in the growing UK music scene, such as Jim Legxacy.
In British English, “fancy that” in American terms is similar to stating a phrase like “Can you imagine that!” when something unexpected or surprising happens. And that’s very much what this album is: a side of PinkPantheress that we have not seen until she developed enough from her “hiding her face on TikTok” era. The album starts off with the song “Illegal,” starting with these dreamy synths followed by the intro lyrics “My name is Pink, and I’m really glad to meet you / You’re recommended to me by some people.” It’s a direct message to the listener that we haven’t gotten from Pink before, establishing the forwardness and increased courage displayed in this album. The song is very fun, with even a moment for a breather, over a UK garage beat—a classic PinkPantheress sound.
There are a few transitions on the album, and as PinkPantheress has stated, this album is very much able to be mixed and is playable like a DJ mix. As a DJ myself, I purely vibe to that. And that’s what the next song is, “Girl Like Me,” a very club-friendly track with a fun bass synth over PinkPantheress’s multi-person chorus singing “Let it all go!” People ask for recession pop back, but maybe UK garage princess Pink can bring it back with this track. The production on this track is insane, with piano bridge breaks and hard-hitting club drums and claps, before ending in an abrupt stop.
The lead single of the album then follows with a sample, a classic standard of PinkPantheress, as she is a main producer of her tracks from Day One and won Producer of the Year at the Billboard Women’s Music Awards last year. It’s the orchestrated somber violin sample from Panic At the Disco, before transitioning to a fun club beat of PinkPantheress saying, “Like what? C’mon.” Then she straight up has a chorus saying, “You want sex with me? Come talk to me,” on this fun, bouncy club (but tailored to Pink’s style) beat. Again, matching the directness and energy that she built from that first liner in the intro track, this song is just fun and direct with her voice on the track about a man who’s not matching her forwardness. “You want sex with me? Come talk to me.”
Stars starts with the sample “Starz In Their Eyes” by Just Jack, a quintessentially British artist, along with a sample from African American British artist Vula Malinga and Ugandan artist Skillah, as well from the track “Oh My Gosh”, paying homage to her British upbringing as well as her Swahili lineage, and building into the imagery of this Kenyan British girl taking over with a storm—over a UK Garage beat at that. “Why’d you wanna go and put stars in their eyes?” echoing over the track with Pink’s light voice just makes the song such a vibe and plays into the directness and club music she’s going for, and she’s killing it. “See that girl standing over there?” she says directly on the track. This track ends with the first transitional state, moving on to slow down to the 24 second intermission with an unknown British man asking to add some drums, with PinkPantheress saying, “Let’s switch the vibe a little,” before ending with a wobbling bass to the next track it’s transitioning to, “Noises.”
This song starts with that hard, fast vibe of Drum and Bass, building into the anticipation and vibe of the song. Like the title and lyrics might imply, her parents said they would be returning soon, and she thinks she hears some noises from the living room. The chorus then includes a fun sample from Nardo Wick’s “Who Want Smoke,” being a fun reference point especially for her Black and African American listeners. It’s also a cheeky moment as throughout much of her career, because of the way she sings, people try to whitewash her. They portray her as “not a Black girl,” and when she says the n-word in this track it solidifies that no, she’s very much Black: What the fuck is that? That’s how she steps on (finish the lyrics). “Noises” is probably my favorite track for the vibe, as well as the sample from the Electronic English duo Groove Armada, from their song “Suntoucher.”
In her previous album Heaven Knows, PinkPantheress’s lead single was produced by Cash Cobain, featuring prominent British rapper Central Cee, and was titled “Nice to Meet You.” It was a fun upbeat song with naivety and hope of getting to know someone, and being excited and feeling butterflies when meeting someone new. Now the seventh track on this album Fancy That, titled “Nice to Know You,” starts with a rather sad orchestra ensemble sound, with lyrics in the chorus “(Ooh) I’m emotional / You made a mess, you know? / Said you’re approachable (Uh, stop it) / And I’m the next to go / You’re unemotional / You were nice to know,” completely doing a 180 from the PinkPantheress that was once excited to know and perhaps obsess over this love interest, with it now being a somber mistake. It includes a sample from iconic British producer William Orbit, who has worked with artists like Madonna and Britney Spears, from the song “Spiral,” with the lyrics “Baby, have you noticed the sky is rearranging, yeah I feel it moving me,” echoing along the violins in the track. You were nice to know.
Produced by The Dare (iykyk) and Aksel Arvid, the 8th track, “Stateside,” is in the same key as “Nice to Know You” but has a completely different vibe. It’s fun and club-like, with confident British PinkPantheress back on the track playing into the iconic Estelle and Kanye song, with the chorus lyrics “You could be my American, ha, ha, boy”. She’s tracking plane rides hoping to run into this boy; she’s never been abroad (romantically explored an American boy), and the album ends with “Are all the boys out here the same?” PinkPantheress, I cannot lie, the majority of them are.
The final closing track on the album, “Romeo,” starts with a guitar, before leading into a light, fun beat, mixing a pop with garage influence track. This, of course, is the most British reference of all, lyricising about one of Shakespeare’s most famous works in a way of British humor. Kind of leaning into the insanity of the American boy a bit, she’s just intensely using “Romeo” as a metaphor for an emotionally intense, confusing, one-sided connection. It’s so playful and tragic, with the song ending with a bunch of men singing along off-key to the chorus, before ending with applause and a violin.
PinkPantheress, my Swahili sister, you have done it again. Heaven knows was an amazing album, but Fancy That in my books topped it as her best album yet, with the ideas, samples, production, and quintessentially British but PinkPantheress vibes being written all over the album. Whether it be the insane lyrics, the English garage and drum and bass samples, or synths that can easily be somber or surprisingly happy? I fancy that album an 8.7/10. Next time, tell us who Romeo is!
