PinkPantheress just wants to talk. Sure, she wants other things too but as she sings about living her early twenties life on Fancy That, talking is what comes up again and again.
This isn't the insecure Pink who wondered if she was good enough on "Boy's a Liar". On this mixtape, she's confident and assured. Over a propulsive, 90s arcade racer beat on "Tonight", Pink's excited to pursue someone. The vocals come at pace, like the thoughts are spilling out of her head and she's straining to keep up. But we hear little about the looks of her object of obsession or whether they're good in bed. Instead, the drawcard is talking. It's what Pink finds attractive, what gets them into her bed. The possibility of talking later is the why that makes her leave the house: âTalk later, thatâs why Iâm going tonightâ.
I love this focus on talking because of how it subverts the usually hedonistic content of a typical dance-adjacent pop song. These songs are still about hooking up, but it feels like the thing Pink cares most about is talking, not fucking.
The whole mixtape has great imagery on this sort of connection. On "Illegal", she gets straight into it with the most direct come-on: "My name is Pink and I'm really glad to meet you". But later in the night at one o'clock, all they're doing is talking on her bed. When she observes that the connection feels illegal, it's not because of the sex they're having. She just likes the chat.
I know these are love songs but when I listen to them, I think about talking with my friends. I'm a sucker for conversation. Like Pink, that's what gets me out of the house. A great conversation can be a thrilling, day-making thing. They can lead to one of the most interesting parts of life: trying to understand someone else. It feels like she gets this when she wonders why someone's so complicated on "Tonight". The best chats are often the complicated ones that colour in the picture of someone's humanity. There's a reverence with which Pink treats talking in these songs that captures that magic. I share her mindset on "Stars", where she asks her baby the simplest but best request: "come talk to me".






















