Suppose you’ve been on TikTok in the last year or so. In that case, you may have come across singer/songwriter Paris Paloma and her anthem of feminist rage, “Labour”, – whether via the song itself or its use as a soundtrack to a legion of videos from women sharing their experiences of patriarchy and gender inequality.
This powerful and primal song earned the 23-year-old a UK Top 30 single and more than 150,000 streams on Spotify alone. The TikTok views are almost at 2 million. Since its initial release in March 2023, “Labour” has grown in popularity, assisted somewhat by the misogynistic remarks of Harrison Butker, kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs (i.e., women should be more excited about marriage and babies than careers, etc.), during a commencement speech.
So Paris, using the collective power of women, especially within her devoted fan base, reworked the track as “Labour—The Cacophony,” released exactly a year after the original. The song featured hundreds of fans’ vocals in harmony with hers, infusing the message with raw emotion and unyielding power.
But how did Paris Paloma get here? Originally hailing from Ashbourne, Derbyshire, Paloma started writing songs whilst studying Fine Art & History of Art at Goldsmiths, University of London, which explains why her songwriting reads like poetry. She draws inspiration from mythological figures and historical stories from the Romantic era and has already made waves with the release of her debut single “Narcissus” in 2020.
2024 has been a massive year for this rising star. In February, she supported Maisie Peters on her European tour. In June, she headlined several sold-out dates in the US, then made her Glastonbury debut. That same month, she performed an outstanding acoustic version of “Labour” on BBC2’s “Later with Jools Holland”. The summer continued at a hectic pace as she appeared as one of the support acts for Stevie Nicks at July’s BST Hyde Park Festival and performances at both Leeds and Reading Festivals this month.
So it’s fair to say that Paris Paloma has proved she is much more than a viral hit.
Cacophony has been two years in the making and has been written at a significant time – the start of Paloma’s journey into adulthood and her life experiences so far. The album is inspired by Stephen Fry’s book of Greek myth retellings “Mythos”. Explaining more about this concept, Paloma has said: “From this chaotic cosmic yawn, creation sprang forth. So this is a collection that makes sense of the overwhelming space of my mind where my anxiety, my OCD, and trauma processing lives.”
Half of the album’s songs have already been released as singles -“My Mind (now)”, “Drywall”, “As Good a Reason”, “Yeti”, “Labour”, and “Warmth”. Nonetheless, this debut is highly anticipated and does not disappoint.
The opening track, “My Mind (now)”, initially begins with gentle incantation loops of “What did I do wrong? Will you tell me what I did wrong?” before it explodes in the chorus and is one of the most experimental songs Paloma has recorded. Trumpets, drums and screams create chaos and represent the constant noise in her head. Like a lot of the album’s material, this song is an expression of Paloma’s mental health at the time, and so it’s very raw and visceral. In contrast, “Pleaser” is the first song Paloma has produced (with no budget and from her university room) and is more folksy with a soft melody and an echoey, ethereal vocal in company with sparse instrumentation.
“His Land” is one of the album’s highlights. This was an instant love for me. It has a brooding atmosphere and a “French chanteuse” vocal. It’s beautiful in its simplicity, with sprinkles of gentle piano keys and cinematic strings. Influenced by her rural England life, this song is about a wistful wish to live off the land and to have a greater connection to it. It’s so mystical in atmosphere that you can feel the rain, the dark and the green. Stunning.
There are keenly written, expressive stories about her childhood – “Boys, Bugs and Men” sounds like a warm summer’s day, dripped in shoegaze iridescence despite its message about the quiet misogynistic power of men that develops as little boys who destroy bugs to see the horror in girls faces: “If I don’t make a sound, does it even hurt?/I’m bending to the ground just to pick up little worms/ And I have seen you relish such violence with a joy/ That I’ve only seen before in the eyes of little boys” whilst “Knitting Song” is a tender, sentimental tale with a weaving, comforting rhythm that tells of the relationship Paloma had with her Grandma when she would sit watching her knitting by the fire with such poetic lyrics: “the deft, agile fingers in firelight flickers/skin laced with wrinkles that made needles sing/ There, love is concreted with quietened breathing and simple entwining of intimate string.”
There are songs of liberation and resilience – “Drywall”, another album highlight, initially begins with the sound of heavy, booted feet going upstairs but then Paloma’s vocal is engaging and sweet with a sweeping and swaying tone that belies the subject matter – of a plan to escape an abusive and toxic relationship and be free: “I used to think of him a caring thing, knuckles on his drywall/I’ve tried all of the parenting, descent into hysterically/Rippin’ into ribbons, the things he knows he isn’t/And severing ties”. ”
As Good As A Reason is a defiant song with a joyful groove that delves into the beauty and strength women find in each other and their communities and the power of learning from each other. “Hunter” has a primal vibe, initially beginning with just a burbling guitar but then joined by dramatic rolls of drums and background vocals. It is reminiscent of Florence and The Machine, especially with Paloma’s gothic sense of femininity.
The following three songs have all been unreleased until now and are thought-provoking and moving in their ways. “Triassic Love Song” is utterly beautiful and heartrending with a true back story of “The Triassic Cuddle”, which was when two unlikely animals that should have fought took shelter together 250 million years ago before being entombed with a flash flood and fossilised. Again, Paloma’s lyrics articulate the human need for love: “What a lovely hiding place that you have made/ To delay our parting/ What a world outside to keep each other safe from/That’s all I want darling”. Her vocal on this is lovely.
“Escape Pod” is a sad, interstellar tale with rich guitar sounds underpinned by mournful string instrumentation about someone being completely alone floating in an escape pod in space after their planet is destroyed and has an outer-worldly chorus: “…they shot me off a dying planet in a tin-sized escape pod/ there was room only for a bed and porthole that I watched my home explode from”. Paloma creates such visual imagery with her music.
“Last Woman On Earth” is dark and vulnerable and is another song that engages with the idea of the end of the world as a metaphor for the darkest point in Paloma’s journey as a survivor of sexual violence herself. It talks about the way women are exploited and sexualised persistently during their lives and even after their deaths, with a reference to Hugh Hefner buying the neighbouring plot to where Marilyn Monroe was laid to rest upon his death.
“Bones On The Beach” starts with a banjo guitar, which adds innocence to a song written when Paloma was burnt out and fantasising about being a pile of ancient bones on the beach in a thousand years’ time—her vocal aches with emotion.
“The Warmth” is the latest single and sounds like it’s from another time. Rich, plucked acoustic guitar with hypnotic strings swimming in echoing harmonies, each flourish is haunting and medieval. It’s resplendent and dramatic in its chorus: “It can’t hurt me/It’s still there, but it can’t know the warmth’s returning/The warmth is coming back and now, no, it can’t hurt me/It’s still there, but it can’t now the warmth’s returning”. This song is feverishly enchanting.
The final track, “Yeti,” is a haunting, bittersweet song about the closure of a relationship. It features American songwriter/producer Old Sea Brigade on backing vocals with backdrops of glistening guitar. This song would not sound out of place on Taylor Swift’s “Folklore” album. Paloma has the same ability to create poignant, eloquent lyrics and scenic soundscapes.
Cacophony has been a cathartic album for Paris Paloma. She has made herself vulnerable, and you can sense that she has put her absolute heart and soul into making this record.
While the songs’ sounds vary, they all share a common theme—the female experience of grief, love, death, and power. This is one of those albums that cannot be absorbed after one listen. It needs several to appreciate the depth and scope of her talented songwriting.
Cacophony is an awe-inspiring debut from an incredibly passionate and thoughtful artist. Something about Paris Paloma stings the soul and makes the heart soar. In her catharsis, this is an album that will help others.
It is immersive songwriting at its best.
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