Album Review: Paris Paloma – The Fatal Flaw
3 min read
Paris Paloma made her breakthrough with labour, a song that saw her blend of folk, alternative pop and interesting lyrics swiftly progress from the bedroom-songwriter origins. Following Cacophony in 2024, Paloma returns with The Fatal Flaw, released via Nettwerk. Taking its title from Donna Tartt’s 1992 novel The Secret History, Paloma aims to use the idea of a fatal flaw as a jumping-off point for exploring love, art, relationships, and the rather messy business of being human. She describes the record as being about love as both an artistic and political act, as well as what happens in its absence. There’s plenty to unpack here, so let’s not hang about!
Starting with one of the single releases that proceeded the album launch, Miyazaki begins with a thumping rhythmic beat and references to Studio Ghibli’s founder Hayao Miyazaki and his comments against AI in art. Rothko next, slowed down and plucky keyboard, metaphorically showing love being an abstract art piece, whereas Stem the Flow is more spoken word to a hypnotic beat about wanting someone to put effort into a relationship, and Bleeding Part of Me is all about the acoustic guitars and much less of a hidden message to the lyrics. Get Her the Fucking Flowers which feels like the follow on track of Stem the Flow when the anger turns to sadness.
Pre-Raphaelite is definitely an envious eye at the (seemingly) effortlessly pretty, where Good Girl seemingly is about being comfortable in what you are and being ok with not being stick thin (“Heaven is a fed girl”), and Pyrrhus (You Go Where I Cannot) strips it back slows it right down in a tale from Homer’s Iliad (not what I was expecting tbh). Silhouette on the Hill is probably the best track in terms of musical composition/construction, Good Boy feels like Paloma’s attempt as the gender switch of Good Girl (it doesn’t work for me, however), and penultimate track Beautiful Birds is probably the best of the album, a little upbeatness (not a word, but ok) in the musical structure, and scratch into the similes and metaphors of the lyrics and it’s worth a re-listen for sure! We round off proceedings with the contrast (to the prior track) of I Cry in Front of Paintings – building from minimal to full orchestra, with lyrics about finding the one, with a little scuffing Greek mythology once more (as happens through the album – this time a mention of Orpheus),
The Fatal Flaw is a solid album… I don’t think I’m quite the target genre/gender/personality type, but I can appreciate that these tracks centre on lyrical resonance more than the actual musical score more often than not – but when there were tracks where the instrumentation was given the same level of detailed attention as the lyrics (or when it felt like it, at least), I was moved (with a small ‘m’). You can tell Paloma is a talented artist, and I can see a world where many of these tracks are used in a variety of teenage TV shows in the background of emotionally intense scenes. As I said, I don’t think this is quite my cup of tea, nor do I think it is meant to be, but I don’t regret the listen and I do admire her artistry!
