The daughter of the King of Pop has made her solo debut. Michael Jackson's daughter Paris Jackson dropped her 11-track album titled "Wilted" on Friday, Nov. 13, though it's not her first foray into the music industry.
After dropping her first EP in June under the group The Soundflowers with then-partner Gabriel Glenn, the 22-year-old musician and model pursued solo ambitions and moved onto on her next venture to embrace her musical roots. The singer collaborated with Andy Hull and Robert McDowell from the band Manchester Orchestra to work on her demos after signing with Republic Records. Thus, “Wilted” was born.
The name of her album comes from a place recognizing the contrast of love and heartbreak.
“I feel like that’s something that everybody can relate to in their own way. I love the idea that love is a flower that blooms, and if it’s not taken care of, as anything, it will wilt, it will die,” she told WWD. “And sometimes that’s just a part of life. I love metaphors and the flower was the perfect metaphor for this. And the mushroom is my new thing. ‘A decay as an extant form of life.’”
Rolling Stone gave the album three and a half stars, while NME rated the album a three out of five stars, referring to the album as “Jackson’s musical introduction.”
"As a musical introduction, it’s enthralling, inconsistent and, at times, excellent. Ultimately, this is a glimpse of the artist that Jackson could be,” Hannah Mylrea of NME wrote.
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Chuck Arnold of the New York Post wrote, “There is not one single Michael-esque moment on her debut album, ‘Wilted,’ which arrives on Friday as if out of nowhere.”
“Her record sounds nothing like you’d expect, partly because if you don’t even know it’s coming, there’s nothing to expect,” Arnold continued. “Let’s be clear: This album is not any kind of game-changer. But it is a revelation in its own way, coming from a young woman who has spent most of her life carefully choosing what she would reveal and how.”
Luke Holland featured the album’s sixth track, “let down,” on The Guardian’s track of the week, writing, “Ignoring the elephant in the room for a moment – and it’s a biggun, and the room is more of a tiny larder – this dreamy, faintly sinister yet wholly beautiful mood-ballad is about as assured a debut single as any artist could ever hope for.”
Jackson acknowledged that she can't please everyone with the music she releases.
"I’ve discovered that no matter what I do or what creative decisions I make, I’m going to be disappointing somebody," she told FAULT Magazine. "So I decided if I’m going to disappoint people regardless, I might as well disappoint them while being true to myself. It’s impossible to please everyone, and sometimes you just need to go with what you believe is right for you."
To Reuters, Jackson said she grew up listening to Motown, soul, blues, jazz and R&B, and that her father "also played a lot of classical music around the house, movie soundtracks, even the radio Top 40."
“But the vibe I’m kind of going for now, along with keeping the folk roots, is a little bit more alternative and I’m taking from bands from the early 2000s,” she explained.
When asked what she thought her late father would say about her debut solo work, Jackson said, “If I had to guess, it would probably be something along the lines of ‘I love you and I’m happy that you’re happy.’”
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