Swimming Paul – Smiling Through The Pain

Review

On his debut album Smiling Through The Pain, Paris-based producer Swimming Paul turns heartache into rhythm, crafting a record that’s as emotionally raw as it is sonically rich. Released in 2024, the album blends melancholic electronica with house textures, layering aching melodies over hypnotic beats that pulse like a racing heartbeat. It’s an introspective dance record — one that invites you to move, even when the emotions underneath are heavy.

Tracks like “Lost” and “Trouble” shimmer with quiet sadness, their vocals half-buried in reverb, while “VHS” and “Falling Apart” reach for the euphoric, club-lit moments that make catharsis feel communal. Paul’s production style is sleek yet deeply human — the kind of music that sounds equally at home in headphones at midnight as it does echoing off the walls of a dimly lit club.

Smiling Through The Pain captures that universal contradiction of grief and joy, heartbreak and release. It’s the sound of learning to dance again — not to forget, but to remember differently. Swimming Paul may be new to the scene, but this album feels like a quiet revelation from someone who’s already found his pulse. - Lina