Paris Paloma has released one of her best songs to date.

It is not often that Paris Paloma, most famous for 2023’s female rage anthem “labour,” releases a love song. This is only her second, after 2020’s “Ocean Baby.” With her new song “I Cry in Front of Paintings,” Paloma has released my favorite song of 2026, and that’s saying something. It has been a great year for music.

Paloma’s vocals on the track are nothing short of ethereal. You can feel the love not only in the words, but in the care she takes to sing them. She always sounds genuine on her tracks, but she has never sounded quite like this before. It makes me wonder if the person she was singing to was in the studio because it sounds so direct.

The main thing that has always drawn me to Paloma, though, is her lyrics. Every song is its own poem, and it never feels like she’s trying too hard. Her literary references are always expertly placed, and those in “I Cry in Front of Paintings” are no exception. She quotes Jane Austen’s Emma to her lover: “If I loved you less, then I could talk about it more” (not the exact same words, but the version that fits the song’s rhythm).

She also references Orpheus looking back at Eurydice, saying that she doesn’t think it was fate. This reminds me of my favorite version of Orpheus looking back: that he made it all the way out of the Underworld, but looked back while Eurydice was still there because he was so excited to see her. Paloma’s reference to this conveys a fear of losing her lover because she loves them too much. This relates to the line from Emma.

The rollout of her upcoming album The Fatal Flaw has been fantastic. There have been six singles, and each fits into a pair: one personal, one societal. “Good Boy” and “Good Girl” compare the implications of each phrase, with “Good Boy” examining men who follow billionaires blindly, while “Good Girl” focuses on women’s, particularly Paris’s, relationships with their bodies. “Miyazaki” (named for Studio Ghibli’s co-founder Hayao Miyazaki) and “Stem the Flow” both explore the taking of something important from people, with “Miyazaki” about fighting against AI stealing from artists and “Stem the Flow” about what a lover has taken from her. These two also share similar cover art.

Finally, “Pre-Raphaelite” and “I Cry in Front of Paintings” both look at paintings as a theme. “Pre-Raphaelite” is about women with the beauty of Pre-Raphaelite subjects, a very different standard from the delicate-boned expectations of today. “I Cry in Front of Paintings” is about paintings as an extension of Paloma’s own emotional journey with her lover.

I am even more excited for The Fatal Flaw to be released on September 4th. You can watch the “I Cry in Front of Paintings” music video below.

Emma Platt