Paris Jackson, daughter of the late Michael Jackson, has released her debut album titled Wilted. The sound, look, and feel of the album goes in a different direction than some of her other musical family members like Janet, so don’t expect a traditional Pop/R&B album.

Overall, the album is a great and beautiful body of work, and an excellent start to Jackson’s career. Jackson put a lot of artistic details in the music itself, along with the visuals. The gothic Victorian style is perfect for her. I like that she stuck with her own style instead of trying to follow in the footsteps of her other musical relatives.

The cover artwork is a dull brown background displaying a single wilted sunflower with one big eye where the seeds are. The visuals for each song, provided on YouTube, include eerie looking characters and even a mushroom with an eye. These artistic choices are very reminiscent of Tim Burton and gothic fantasy art.

Sonically, Jackson makes use of an acoustic guitar and some band production. The songs are mostly stripped down, slow, and have a haunting, dark feeling to them.

The title track, “wilted,” is one of the faster songs on the album. This song is composed of a guitar and ambient sounds of drums. Jackson’s voice sounds layered, and there is use of reverb, giving off a dreamy listening experience.

The metaphors in the lyrics are particularly clever. In the lyrics, “Deprive me of the sun, I may grow but I’ll be gnarled and twisted, now,” she relates the process of a flower wilting without the sun to herself being different after someone leaves her.

The fifth track, “dead sea,” is a slower track that subtly delves into her personal life and struggles. This track also uses an acoustic guitar and an ambient piano—along with a lot of reverb, a similarity it shares with the title track.

In the lyrics, “But I was born in a fire, so all this smoke inspires me,” she references how she was born into all of these struggles, possibly talking about the struggles of being famous along with her mental health, and it inspires her in an artistic way.

The sixth track and debut single, “let down,” is a faster acoustic track compared to “dead sea” and “wilted.” This track is the only one with a music video so far. Jackson references a relationship that failed in lyrics such as “You were my all and now I fall to the ground, you hit the wall and now I crawl underground.”

Fitting the overall gothic Victorian aesthetic, the video takes place in a gloomy mansion lit only by candles on the wall. There is a bit of simple choreography between Jackson and another character. The video has various shades of red, black, and dark blue.

In the track, “cosmic (wait for me),” she continues using her analogies by comparing a lover to space-related words. “It’s got me walking deaf and blind in the night

and I don’t know if you’ll come back from the stars.”

You can listen to Wilted by Paris Jackson on Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, and other streaming services. The album currently costs around $9.49.