Hi, everyone. Baldthony Mantheress here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of the new PinkPantheress album, Fancy That.

The UK's own dance pop It Girl, PinkPantheress – singer, songwriter, producer, she's back, AKA Victoria Beverly Walker. And at this point, it feels like a lifetime ago, that Pink began to really break through as a viral sensation on the TikTok platform, off of all these homespun demos and singles and tracks she was prolifically dropping in the early 2020s on SoundCloud.

In retrospect, it's not surprising a lot of these early cuts really got the ball rolling for Pink, given they were just the right mix of pop appeal and nostalgia with a low-key entrancing sound that was very right place, right time, with Y2K era aesthetics and music coming back into style. Not to mention that many of the songs I'm referring to just work really well in the context of a pandemic era listen. But while PinkPantheress may have been releasing a lot of material around this time to really build her brand up, since she has gotten much more popular, her release schedule has grown much more strategic.

Because if you remember in 2021, we had that very, very brief To Hell with It mixtape, then the eventual album two years later, which was a bit more built out in terms of overall length and features, production credits, so on and so forth. The record also featured that incredible hit on it with Ice Spice, "Boy's a Liar". Even with the very impressive commercial performance of the tracks on that album, PinkPantheress has not really been much more eager to change her less is more approach as far as the way she presents herself and gets her music out there.

Because now, about two years later down the road, we have not another album, but a mixtape, which is nine tracks, one of which is a cheeky interlude right in the middle. The whole thing totals at just about 20 minutes of length, so not exactly getting spoiled with a whole ton of music here, but that's pretty much a PinkPantheress trademark at this point. And for the most part with this project, I feel like Pink is, once again, proving the concept and sticking to her guns while simultaneously showing continued growth and maturity in her sound.

Now, once again, all of those oughties dance pop influences and house influences are still very much there in the production and the songwriting. You could argue that she's digging even further into that sound on some tracks, like with the very peppy, string-kissed "Romeo", which is very Britney Spears' Blackout era, among other things. And other musical residuals of this time period turn up as well in the samples and interpretations on this record, as it always has in PinkPantheress's work. "Stars", for example, lifts a snippet from the 2000s indie dance crossover from Just Jack, "Stars in Their Eyes". Then "Girl Like Me" also brings a pretty sharp revision of the group chorus vocals from Basement Jaxx's "Romeo".

All these sounds, all these samples, all these different musical bits culminate into a series of tracks that are sweet, idyllic, feel good, which of course, all perfectly fits the writing that PinkPantheress laces into these tracks, as you have moments and lyrics on this record where Panther S is feeling romantically jilted or excited over new connections, relationships, and possibilities.

There's also the intense yearning, desire, and in your face sexuality of "Tonight". It's important to remember that Pantheress is still at a point in her life where sometimes these connections can feel so exciting that it's almost taboo, like on the opening track, "Illegal". The framing of which does feel a bit weird, but I see and get the intent that suddenly meeting up with someone that you're attracted to, you've heard things about, can feel almost as if you're getting away with something because you're young, you're in your 20s, and you're first entering into this period of your life where you actually get to make your own dumb adult decisions.

Now, despite this project being merely framed as a mixtape, and on top of that, a lot of the writing coming from a place where it makes Pantheress' youth obvious, in a lot of ways, this record does feel like a step up from everything she has done before in terms of the overall sound coming across, very sleek and clean and mature and professional. You can hear it in how detailed and punchy a lot of the instrumentals on this record are. The writer and producer credits are most definitely popping off as well on a lot of these tracks between the samples and everyone involved in making this mixtape what it is.

At this point, for better or for worse, PinkPantheress definitely sounds miles away from the very DIY quality of a lot of her early stuff. But it's impressive she's been able to implement all of that while still crafting tracks that very sound like her. Something I was worried we would lose touch with given moments on her last record, like the "Central Cee" cut, which was handily the worst on that album. But I feel like that trademark PinkPantheress sparkle still comes through on many tracks here, even the one with production on it from The Dare, because we're now several years deep into Victoria's career now, and she's still taking a super subtle approach vocally on all of these tracks in a way that comes across as very soft and a a little shy, but still distinct in a somewhat uncanny way.

PinkPantheress on this tape is still very much about her undeniable dance groups, her reference points, driving home a point with her lyrics, too. I think she's gotten even better at focused lyrics here and there on these tracks as well, especially with these additional spoken word and talk-sung bits that she works into tracks like "Nice to Know You" and "Stars".

But yeah, even though in the tracklist here, I do think a few songs paled in comparison to others, like "Noises", for whose "what the fuck is that?" chorus, in my opinion, just does not suffice. The song "Nice to Know You" as well, as much as I appreciate how the instrumental there is really trying to go for it, it does come across a little more cacophonous and cluttered than I think it should.

Still, Victoria has worked a lot of bops into this very short, tight, packed tracklist, which mostly is very enjoyable, yes, but at the length that it definitely, once again, leaves me wanting more. But I suppose, again, that is another thing that is a PinkPantheress calling card at this point: give the fans those bangers, those really strong tracks, but not too many. Not too many of them.

But yes, while the amount of evolution and ambition from project to project is maybe not as great as it was going into her last full-length LP, we once again have another very enjoyable batch of PinkPantheress songs here, which are pretty much in the ballpark of everything she's done thus far as she continues to grow and mature as an artist, which is why I'm feeling a strong 7 to a light 8 on this mixtape.

Anthony Fantano, PinkPantheress, Forever.