Paloma Faith - A Perfect Contradiction

A former burlesque dancer from Hackney with a big personality, Paloma Faith arrived in 2009 with quirky style in abundance and a refreshingly opinionated demeanour. There was musical promise too, as her debut Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful? went double platinum in her native UK with a fair share of critical respect to go with it. If there was the feeling that she wasn’t quite the sum of her soul diva and pop R&B influences, more middle-of-the-road than her freewheeling persona would suggest, it was assumed to be your standard debut critique. She’d shake off the references, lose her safety net and find a musical voice as unique as her interview schtick, all in good time.

2011’s Fall To Grace continued the commercial success of the debut, but reviewers seemed wary. If anything, her sound was becoming more engineered. Hit songwriters were drafted in and the singer seemed to be going through a checklist for topping the charts. Professional to the point of it feeling like work.

Third time lucky with A Perfect Contradiction? Aiming to kick the campaign off with a bang, she’s enlisted the help of a superstar who recently sang about that rub of the green, Pharrell Williams. He produces album opener and lead single ‘Can’t Rely On You’. Lacking his usual golden touch, it kicks off in a too-familiar style, coming over like ‘Blurred Lines’ (yelps and all) married to the electro-fied riff of Franz Ferdinand’s ‘Take Me Out’. The latter resemblance is so striking that it got Alex Kapranos tweeting – but overall the number can’t muster up any of the magic of those two pop titans. Faith’s voice is technically impressive, but the melody isn’t worth over-emoting about.

From there it feels a bit like name that tune, era or artist. ‘Mouth To Mouth’ is serviceably light, ‘80s R&B – a pre-Purple Rain Prince kind of thing. There’s disco – cause disco’s back! – on ‘Take Me’, which ends in some cockney chatter which only serves to remind us that, when she’s singing, she’s emulating American soul divas.

Lyrically, it’s all ‘he left me and love sucks’ fare, with not a lot else on offer in terms of insight or imagination. A Perfect Contradiction is constantly reminding you of better things.

‘Impossible Heart’ conjures up the spirit of M People but gets by on a brisk melody that allows you no time to dwell on any niggles. It’s when she slows things down that she finds her real voice: an album of Paloma Faith torch songs could work. ‘The Bigger You Love (The Harder You Fall)’ swoops and swishes in velvety ways, the instrumentation giving the song space to breathe, allowing Faith to turn in one of the few affecting, rather than affected, vocals. The real stand-out, ‘Only Love Can Hurt Like This’, offers a seductive slow horn stomp and vocal showcase. Penned by veteran songsmith Diane Warren, it points the way forward.

If Paloma Faith could align herself with someone of that pedigree for a full LP, we could be in for a treat. Unfortunately, yet again, she struggles to soar alone.