by Gilmore and Doran, and Doran provided additional production for the entire album. Sonically, the music on My Mind Makes Noises is informed by pop music from the 1980s. When asked by Music Feeds magazine why the band gravitated toward the sound of this decade, Baron-Gracie explained, "Me and [Ciara] grew up with our parents playing a lot of music from the eighties, so it's sort of engraved into us from such an early stage in our lives that I guess we always gravitate towards that era. I loved twinkly synths and the jangly chorus guitars". 1980s musicians and bands whom the band members have cited in particular as influences include The Blue Nile, Madonna, Prince, Cocteau Twins, and the Cure. Some music critics have noted the sonic influence of the 1975 on the album, although Baron-Gracie has pushed back on blanket comparisons between her band and the 1975, telling Nylon magazine: "I guess people just hear poppy guitars these days and think, 'The 1975,' because they're the most relevant band at the moment, and they're so big people are automatically inclined to compare". Content Speaking to the BBC on 8 January 2018 about the album, Heather Baron-Gracie explained that while most of the music the band had released up until that point was about romance, many of the songs from My Mind Makes Noises were more introspective: "The songs we have out now are very influenced by romance. The album is me talking about a lot of my darker issues. I talk about a lot of things that go on in my mind rather than in my heart ... I talk about a lot of my insecurities, which I think a lot of people will relate to and will find really comforting. There's a lot of content which I think will strike a chord with people, who will think it's really honest". In a subsequent interview with Music Week on 15 January 2018, Baron-Gracie further described the album as more sombre and personal: "A lot of people have only heard our pop songs, so I can't wait to give them the other side of Pale Waves, which is super dark and vulnerable". The album-opener, "Eighteen", was written while the band was touring. Baron-Gracie had "had [the] first verse written for ages", and Doran wrote music around Baron-Gracie's lyrics. Doran's contributions were inspired by their affective response to Greg Mottola's