Photo by Charlie Engman

Pop music is at its best when it aims to create what music producer and occasional culture critic Nick Sylvester dubs the “smartdumb” sweet spot in finding a balance between delicate simplicity that strays outside the lines while staying steps ahead of trend better than most, and that’s why PinkPantheress’ debut album, Heaven knows, remains one of 2023’s criminally underrated mainstream releases of that year and beyond. Regardless, Victoria Beverley Walker continues to understand how to twist up pop’s future rather than cater towards its contemporary, and that energy accelerates on “Tonight”, the lead single from the English experimental producer’s forthcoming mixtape, Fancy That. Without forfeiting her hyperpop past, she palpitates sensuous lite house beats using just her breath and — for brilliantly dumb reasons — strings sampled from Panic! At the Disco’s 2008 fan-dividing sophomore effort, Pretty. Odd., made ambient. “You want sex with me? / Come talk to me,” she sings. It’s a blunt proposition, and still PinkPantheress makes it sound like a foreign love language.

Directed by: Charlotte Ruthorford

PinkPantheress’ Fancy That will be released May 9th on Warner Records UK.