Dorothea Paas is set to release Think of Mist on Telephone Explosion, marking her sophomore album and the much-anticipated follow-up to her 2021 debut, Anything Can’t Happen. That first album—nominated for the Polaris Prize and celebrated as “one of the most stirring and emotionally resonant break-up albums of recent years” by Uncut—introduced Paas as a singular voice in deeply introspective songwriting.
Paas, known for her work alongside artists like U.S. Girls, Jennifer Castle, and Tim Darcy, finds fresh inspiration on this record from her recent collaborations with Marker Starling and Badge Époque Ensemble. Their influence—jazz, prog, and psychedelia—invigorates her new material, particularly on the album’s climactic single, “Maybe I’ll Fade,” out today.
“Maybe I’ll Fade” is, in Paas’ words, the heart of Think of Mist and a “psychosexual ode to Niagara Falls.” The track feels expansive and awe-inspiring, a contemplative journey through desire and sublimity, spurred by Paas’ vision of the Falls: “If I shift my perspective, I can see the water as individual drops, or one huge, crushing mass.” The song builds gradually, Paas’ voice rising as drums crash and keyboards cascade, culminating in a cathartic, sweeping sound—“endless and endlessly new.” It closes with a field recording of Niagara Falls, captured with her partner in the early days of their relationship, where mist becomes both a tangible presence and a symbol of love’s ephemerality.
Paas describes the song as a reflection on collective longing: “I imagine myself and other beings as drops in the same waterfall, infinitely flowing and falling together. We have our individual heartbreaks, but we all might be locked into some rhythm greater than us, without knowing, bound together, in terrifying harmony.”
LISTEN TO DOROTHEA PAAS’ “MAYBE I’LL FADE” BELOW:
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