From the haunting and powerful voice that brought us the stirring viral hit “Labour”, Paris Paloma graces listeners with “My Mind (Now)”.
For those of us who have navigated the turbulence of mental health, we know what it feels like to have our minds become overwhelmed and drowned with noise. Playing with moments of silence where the track drops out to feel like a moment of pause, to the cacophony and symphony of sound that almost feels like the song is going to blow out your speakers - “My Mind (Now)” is a beautiful symbolic representation of the chaos of Paloma’s mind and what it feels like to navigate ones mental health when it becomes overwhelming.
Lately, when I’ve been talking with those close to me about mental health we all resonate with this feeling of our brains just being loud. For me mine spirals beyond a point of what I’m experiencing but even how it might be used against me or have me be seen as weak or broken and my mind becomes a cluster of noise that can’t be untangled from what is real in what I am experiencing and what my brain has extrapolated in the name of anxiety. A song like this allows me to hear through the noise. It allows me to acknowledge the noise of my mind but, like I do when I review a song, begin to break it apart - the static, the vocal, how the drums hit, how the guitar creates almost a buzz and warmth in it.
Truly a beautiful examination of the mind within this release. Someone send a link to my therapist please.
“My Mind (now) is about the BC and the AD of trauma, and what it did to my mental state, the feeling that an event was so cataclysmic that it rearranged the chemical makeup of my mind. The song is a reflection of my struggle with OCD and anxiety as a response to traumatic events, and the electrical storm of emotions that exists inside my head, filling it with noise that never seems to leave, as I search for a few seconds of respite and quiet from it. It is also about the power other people hold to set that trauma into motion, and both the fragility and strength of the human mind. my mind (now) is an embodiment of the the act of creation in the form of art and writing as a coping mechanism that comes out of the overwhelming noise and chaos of the mind.” - Paloma
UK singer songwriter Paris Paloma channels the experience of womanhood into her songwriting, speaking to the female experience, grief, love, death, and power. Her songwriting reads like poetry, drawing inspiration from figures throughout mythology, art history and the Romantics. Ranging from the tender and heartbreaking to the sublimely aggressive and vengeful. Her ethereal sound takes influences from dark pop, folk, and indie genres; creating a magical discography that evokes something primal and innately feminine.
Review by Hannah Schneider