Hailing from Canada, Cloud Pham is focused on creating mood-driven melancholic music that blends together indie pop and rock elements. Liking themselves to something akin to what Linkin Park would have sounded like if they started as a sad indie band, Cloud Pham’s sound has an intelligence combined with an emotional intensity.
Whilst Cursed maintains the indie sound of Cloud Pham’s earlier work, it also leverages electronic production techniques and broken soul, but applied soulfully and with a delicate touch. The result has a touch of dubstep to it — the vocals all the more lonely as a result of the application of space in the production.
The result is a hypnotic trip into a moment of depression and anxiety. The vocal refrain of, “Baby help me, I am cursed, everything I do just makes things worse” could be melodramatic, yet hits with an earnestness that gives it recognisable humanity. I think many of us have been there — needing someone to reach out and take our hand, so we can emerge for a dark moment. Occasionally, it can be all too easy to dislike oneself, and the only thing that will help is compassion, both from ourselves and from others.
The feeling of guilt persists through Cursed, and is something the artist references in the inspiration for the song:
“Cursed is a song about redemption and forgiveness that is not achievable, no matter how hard you try. It's about holding on to a guilt that never goes away.”
In creating the song, Cloud Pham hopes to learn from past mistakes and to make peace. Listen below: