"Eighteen" is a song by English

indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and su ...

band Pale Waves from their debut studio album, '' My Mind Makes Noises'' (2018). It was released as the album's fifth single on 24 July 2018 by

Dirty Hit Dirty Hit is a British independent record label founded in December 2009 by Jamie Oborne, Brian Smith, and former England footballer, Ugo Ehiogu. It is currently based in West London, England. Their releases are distributed to digital platforms ...

Release

The song premiered on BBC Radio 1 show as Annie Mac's "Hottest Record in the World" on 24 July 2018. The band also revealed on the same show that their debut studio album was titled ''My Mind Makes Noises'' and would be released on 14 September 2018. "Eighteen" was featured on BBC Radio 1's official playlist throughout August and September 2018. The single reached the A-list in the week of 7 September 2018, a first for the band. The song was a success in Japan, marking the first time the band have charted outside of Europe. The single reached number 55 on the ''Billboard'' Japan Hot 100 and number two on the Japan Hot Overseas chart. , "Eighteen" has been streamed 11.24 million times on Spotify.

Critical reception

Will Richards of ''

DIY "Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and sem ...

'' magazine gave the song a positive review, calling it the band's "most direct pop song yet", and also praising the chorus as "the best Pale Waves have ever written." Writing for ''Dork'', Stephen Ackroyd was similarity positive about the track, praising it for being a great introduction to the album; he wrote the track "audibly throbs, revving its engines on the starting line." Rania Aniftos of '' Billboard'' called the track a "glistening pop tune", writing: "It's truly an electronic bop that encompasses the age it's titled after."

Music video

The music video for "Eighteen" was directed by Adam Powell and premiered on 22 August 2018. The video follows Baron-Gracie as she goes on a road trip across the United States. Footage of Baron-Gracie walking through a forest, staying in a motel, visiting a diner, and driving in her car. Interspersed with this footage are brief and intimate shots of Baron-Gracie and an unseen lover. While talking to Taylor Henderson of '' Pride Magazine'', Baron-Gracie explained that the video for "Eighteen" is "all about ersort of looking for that nseen loveror trying to find that person." Initially, the video did not feature the quick cuts to Baron-Gracie and the aforementioned lover, as the artist explained:

In "Eighteen", there's a moment where you see me with another person ... hat isactually my stylist. It wasn't intentional. ... On the day, we filmed the whole entire video, and then we looked at the video and thought, "Hey, this isn't going to make sense. You need to see me with somebody for this video to make sense." ... We were like, "Who can we put in the video?" ... And then I was like, "Patty will you be in the video?" And you know, she's this straight, Italian, amazing woman, and she was like, "OK, I will, but I don't really want to!" So she's in the video.

Track listing

Charts

Release history

References

{{authority control 2018 singles 2018 songs Dirty Hit singles Pale Waves songs Songs written by Heather Baron-Gracie