Rated Fall To Grace: First Listen

I've been girding my loins for the new Paloma Faith album for weeks and in 10 days it will drop into my lap and I'll be floating along to it for hours on end. This morning I discovered the album sampler is available online and so, naturally, I got listening and putting pen to paper. On first impressions this is a strong collection of songs, with Paloma's voice on top form and the production never threatens to drown her out. I notice a lack of the potent retro feel of her debut Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful? with its vintage inspired songs 'Upside Down', 'Smoke & Mirrors' and 'Broken Doll'. However, that said, this slight change/evolution in her sound is a clear sign of artistic progression. I guess we'll have to wait and see for sure when the album-full is released on 28 May.

Picking Up The Pieces
A lovely 'oomph' filled orchestral ballad about a crumbling relationship. See my review here.

30 Minute Love Affair
"30 minute love affair/All in the blink of an eye/There you were standing there..."she sings over an uplifting array of pleasant 80s synths. This is a bouncy poppy number that sounds unlike anything she's recorded before.


Black & Blue
One of the stronger ballads on the album, with stunning vocals on the massive chorus that wouldn't have seemed out of place on her debut album.


Just Be
A stripped back ballad, with some unusually restrained vocals from Paloma laced over the top of a gorgeous piano.


Let Me Down Easy
A fantastic sounding mid-down tempo song with a throbbing synth beat and a haunting metallic riff. This is electronic soul at its best.


Blood, Sweat & Tears
This sounds a bit like it was written by Sam Sparro and The Scissor Sisters. A electronic-disco infused pop song, this is a grower.


Beauty of the End
This sounds a bit like a bonus track from her first album. Lovely 'oooohh aaaahh' backing the chorus and Paloma's soulful voice.


When You're Gone
The first thing I thought of when I heard this was James Blake's album. It's no where near as wonderfully weird as that, but it has a faint throb in the background that sounds like he might have had a hand in its production.


Agony
A stronger uptempo track to 'Blood, Sweat & Tears'. "This is agony but it's still a thrill for me..." she belts out on a less bouncy, more orchestral pop song.


Let Your Love Walk In
Again, another ballad with lovely vocals. By this point I'd gotten a bit confused by which ballad was what. This is probably just because I've only had access to 1 minute clips of each, making it harder to absorb each one. Sounds good, potentially not as strong as the others though.


Freedom
One of my favourites. Starting off in lounge ballad form over a piano this song unexpectedly bursts into an exhilarating mid tempo chorus with light synths and an infectious beat.


Streets of Glory
The album closes with a ballad, showcasing just why this singer deserves some more recognition for her talent. It's a ghostly song with a sumptuous strings section and a thumping beat.

On first listen Fall To Grace sounds like it's brimming with artistic promise. There are some truly beautiful musical moments here in the form of 'Picking Up the Pieces', 'Just Be' and the epic 'Freedom'. I have some concern that the ballads might be a little samey, but I will reserve this criticism for when I've heard the full album in all its glory. Right now, I'm pretty confident this is going to be a joyride.

Rated Perfect World

Beth Ditto is back to her belt out best on the Gossip's new track 'Perfect World'. Similarly to 'Heavy Cross', this is a strong example of what's on the rest of their new album A Joyful Noise (review coming soon) and as a stand alone song it's damn lovely. Ditto's soulful vocals meander between the gothic rock synths and riffs, sounding as convincing and powerful as ever. It's typically Gossip and gorgeously Beth.

5/5

Rated Sunday Girl 2012

Ok so it's over a year since I first posted about Sunday Girl and still nothing has happened. Her career hasn't gone into orbit like I predicted and 'Four Floors' still isn't receiving the recognition it deserves. This is something I want to rectify, if only for this one song's sake! It's over two years old now and I still absolutely love it. I want an album god damnit!

Rated Picking Up The Pieces

It's been a while since we heard anything from Paloma Faith, other than the odd burst of 'Upside Down' over the top of the daft Boots adverts. Her last single 'Smoke & Mirrors' didn't even threaten to ignite the charts, which is a shame because it really is a great pop song. Her debut album Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful? was a great collection of retro tinged pop songs, with elements of blues and soul entwined in well written pop craft. As her sophomore album approaches, entitled Fall To Grace, she really needed to showcase something special to ensure it makes an impact.

'Picking Up The Pieces' succeeds as a lead single. The standard structure of a song is start off small and end things big, however this doesn't follow this generic layout. Instead, the song's first chorus is huge and gets even bigger as the song reaches its crescendo. 'Now she's gone and I'm picking up the pieces' Paloma belts with her gorgeous vocal on a song about a crumbling relationship, damaged by a past love. The song is well written, well sung and most reassuringly continues the nu-vintage soul sound of her debut collection. It's nice to see she's sticking to her own style and not falling into the habits of many of her peers, jumping onto some boring dub step inspired bandwagon. I just hope this song and the upcoming album gain this brilliant artist the recognition and respect she deserves.

5/5

Listen to the song here

Rated 'My Kind of Love'

Emeli Sande performed her stunning new single on The Voice UK last night on BBC1. One performance so strong and so impressive I thought it needed a post of its very own. Amazing vocal range, brilliant stage arrangement and one of my favourite songs of 2012, this is a performance I'll be watching over and over for months. Take a look below if you missed it or like me, you just can't get enough of Emeli!

Rated Roundup: Cheryl/Tulisa/Rita

She's back and she forgot her trousers!

Something horrendous has happened... I like Cheryl Cole and Tulisa's new singles. I'm distressed as I dance around the flat singing '...when you call my name' at the top of my voice. My poor neighbours, no wonder they moved out. Anyway, here's another roundup of singles for your audio pleasure/displeasure, including those two dirties above:

1. Cheryl Cole - Call My Name

So she's back, Y-I.ing her way back into the spotlight after a much needed hiatus (much needed for us, not her). I won't lie, I liked 'Fight For This Love' and 'Promise This' because they were nothing more than fun coated, sticky sugary pop. Now with 'Call My Name' she's teamed up with Calvin Harris to create a song that sounds suspiciously similar to his behemoth Rihanna hit 'We Found Love'. It's got the same summery tone and a very similar structure, but it's completely different, right? Anyway, that aside, this is a pretty damn good pop song and I won't deny ol' tarty chops her place at number 1. Since I'm the chart controller.

5/5

2. Tulisa - Young

Another one who's thrown me into turmoil with her new single. 'Young' is a well timed dance number about the foolery of youth and how it is an excuse for making silly mistakes and trashing art shows (or giving a guy a blow job on camera, badly). 'Forgive me for what I have done, cos I'm young, Yeah I'm young', sings a vocally impressive Tulisa. It's not perfect though. The Calvin Harris esque build up-dance explosion is fun but not as good as that which it seems to mimic and the repetitive title line gets a bit tiresome. It's just silly pop at the end of the day, so let's not take it too seriously.

2.5/5

3. Rita Ora - R.I.P

First coming to our attention on DJ Fresh's number one hit 'Hot Right Now', Rita Ora caused some confusion as the 'girl who copies Rihanna's blonde hair'. Somehow I don't think hair colour is something attributable to being a rip off, so let's just sack that notion now. 'R.I.P' is her first solo outing and it's pretty awesome. Her voice sounds great, the production is solid (although I'm a bit bored of the dubsteppy sound that's on everything right now) and I can't get enough of the panting bridge segment. For a debut single this is as good as it gets.

5/5

Rated Thursday Playlist

They say music reflects and affects your mood. I'm not sure what mood I'm in, a pretty crappy one but the below playlist has plenty upbeat slices of yummy musical cake to keep you bouncing this coming weekend. I think the more up tempo tracks are probably illustrative of my desire to escape to a completely different existence. This isn't in any particular order, it's just some songs I can't stop listening to this week and I'll probably continue to batter then this weekend.

Rated i's weekend playlist (Published May 3rd)

Fun. - We Are Young
Rihanna - Where Have You Been?
Simian Mobile Disco - Cruel Intentions
James Blake - Why Don't You Call Me?
Black Keys - Gold on the Ceiling
Lana Del Rey - Off to the Races
Norah Jones - Happy Pills
Alicia Keys - Like the Sea
Beyonce - Sweet Dreams
Emeli Sande - My Kind of Love
Kele - Tenderoni