The Paloma Faith Rate | WINNER & Album Stats

Hoping for option #3, but I wouldn't mind if it was #1 either.

 

It's obviously
'Beauty of the End'
'Beauty Remains'

Or any song with "Your" in the title.

 

@BubblegumBoy said the two songs were from the same album though.

 

@BubblegumBoy, I just took a glimpse at the scores for "I Just Wait", and @soratami also gave it an 8 - pretty sure the average is the same, it's just my nitpicking coming through.

Yes, neither of the songs with 'beauty' in their title will be leaving next.
Speaking of connections, I just noticed that "I'll Be Gentle" and "Press Lightly" were eliminated back to back, which is cute.

 

So which two songs are we losing tonight...



Let Me Down Easy



(From: Fall to Grace)

Average: 6.51

High Scorers: 9.5 x 1 (@Maki) 8 x 1 (@Sprockrooster)

Low Scorers: 2 x 1 (@Markus1981)

Another day, another cover. ‘Let Me Down Easy’ was originally recorded by American soul singer, Bettye LaVette back in 1965. LaVette re-recorded it in 1969, incorporating funk guitars into the song. Since then the song has been covered by The Spencer Davis Group, Inez and Charlie Foxx and Paolo Nutini. Paloma’s version was produced by Nellee Hooper and Jake Gosling who worked on a large proportion of the album.

My Thoughts: (7.5) This one of the songs I keep forgetting is a cover. It does fit very nicely on the album. Her vocals on the choruses are great but its a little forgettable overall.

Commentary:
@Maki (9.5) My favourite song from this album. Random as hell, I know. Nonetheless, I'm very impressed how they transformed the song and delivered this cover. The production is dope and Nellee Hooper finally shows his genius. I'm still perplexed that he produced nearly the entire album, because this is the genius that should've been present.

 

Well that didn't incite any reactions dd...

Let Your Love Walk In



(From: Fall to Grace)

Average: 6.52

High Scorers: 9.5 x 1 (@tylerc904) 8.5 x 1 (@Markus1981)

Low Scorers: 4 x 1 (@Phonetics Girl) 4.2 x 1 (@Untouchable Ace)

‘Let Your Love Walk In’ was written by Paloma and Ed Harcourt who also worked on the single ‘Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?’. Again, it is produced by Hooper & Gosling. Paloma said the song is about letting someone in to experience true romance. She also mentions her imagination and wanting things to exist.

My Thoughts: (8) I think I over scored this one. I was probably getting a bit bored of the ballads during the Watch2Gether session and decided to throw out a higher score to keep me amused. I mean, its fine?

Commentary:

@Maki (6.5) I like some flourishes in the instrumental, but the song is more of the same when it comes to this album. The chorus is pretty good and memorable, though the rest is very bland and ultimately brings it down.

Next time: will Infinite Things lose its first track or will another album suffer?​

 

My favourite song from "Fall to Grace" leaving first and only 0.1 point (and 0.01 average score) behind the second lowest ranked track from that album? I hate it here.
Okay, it is a cover and I didn't see it do extremely well, but being the first elimination from the mediocre album is a crime. "Let Me Down Easy" is by far one of the most imaginative songs from the album (those electronic elements in particular) and to say it was done dirty is an understatement.

I expected the results to be messy, but not a total chaos.

 

I had no idea where my Paloma tastes aligned with everyone else's but Let Your Love Walk In is one of my all time favorite songs from her. Shocked to see it out so early!

 

He giveth, and then he taketh away. I love Fall To Grace but Let Me Down Easy is horrible to me and really ruins the flow. I don't seem to like most of her covers actually.

Whereas I really love Let Your Love Walk In and wish it was staying much longer. I'd forgotten how much I loved Fall To Grace until doing the relisten for this rate. It was nice to do it on my new red vinyl which sounds particularly gorgeous.

It's interesting to see how polarising Paloma's songs are though.

 

Loving the avatar @Markus1981!


Older



(From: The Architect)

Average: 6.55

High Scorers: 8 x 3 (@Disco Tears, @Sprockrooster, @tylerc904)

Low Scorers: 4.9 x 1 (@Untouchable Ace) 5 x 2 (@saviodxl, @Markus1981)

‘Older’ was included as track 22 on the Zeitgeist edition of The Architect, released in November 2018. The track was written by Paloma along with Finlay Dow-Smith and Cleo Tighe who both worked on several other tracks on the album. ‘Older’ is produced by Starsmith who again produced a number of the songs on The Architect. In an interview Paloma mentioned that the song was written for her mother and letting go and letting her do her own thing now she’s older.

My Thoughts: (7.5) This is one of the songs I struggle to remember. I like the sentiment of the song but it’s nowhere near a stand out on an album like ‘The Architect’.

Commentary:

@Maki (6.75) After 127 songs, of course this one sounds like a filler and brings nothing new to the album. It's nice enough, I guess.

Next time: we return to the debut album...​

 

Glad we're getting rid of the filler of those unnecessarily long albums

 

"Older" just... exists. The lack of high and low scores confirms that.
I like the pre-chorus and it's not the worst song on the album, but it's definitely an apt elimination.

I'll take only "Broken Doll" and "Romance Is Dead", but there are surely weaker songs than both of them.

 

My Legs Are Weak is the... weakest song on the debut. But I guess it could be something surprising.

 

@Maki called this one!



Broken Doll



(From: Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?)

Average: 6.609

High Scorers: 8 x 1 (@soratami)

Low Scorers: 3 x 1 (@Markus1981)

‘Broken Doll’ is actually a very important song in Paloma’s career. It was the song that caught the attention of Epic A&R Joanna Charrington on Paloma’s MySpace page. Charrington described it as having a ‘fantastic chorus and brilliant lyrics’. Paloma was then signed to the label having previously been turned down as her material was too generic. The song was written and produced with Ian Barter and recorded in his home studio. Barter also worked on B Sides: ‘I Just Wait’ and ‘Luv Ya’.

My Thoughts: (7.5) Probably one of Paloma’s quirkiest songs in some ways. It’s full of metaphors and fit in well on the album. The song itself seems to drift a lot, the big note at the end is really something though.

Commentary:

@Disco Tears (7) I like this, but it drags on a little too much for my liking.

@saviodxl (5) I pass

@bonnieetclyde (7.5) Very theatrical. Her voice is great on this but the verses lack something.

@Maki (7) One of the earliest songs that made it on this album and it's quite noticeable. This is a perfectly fine song, but it pales compared to majority of the album. Again, the instrumental and production lift it up.

Next time: we *finally* lose our first song from Infinite Things, any guesses?​

 

I'd Die For You, put your money where your mouth is!

(It still feels weird to see debut tracks down there with the flops, but at least Broken Doll was my lowest score of the lot. Now back to prayer circle manifesting Top 50 placements!)

 

"Broken Doll" is an acceptable elimination at this point, although not ideal in my book.
The middle-8 is my favourite part, it's quite moody, but the song as a whole leans onto the more gimmicky side compared to the class of majority of the album.

I think the first song eliminated from "Infinite Things" will be "If This Is Goodbye".

That's one of my lowest scores from the album, so it would be a good first cut, too. Though I'm not entirely sure whether a non-ballad would leave first.

 

I'm surprised Broken Doll is out already, I thought it was pretty good. I also love that the the title commentary ("very theatrical") applies to about 95% of the songs in the rate dd

 

The write-up of "Broken Doll" reminded me that I forgot to share these early unreleased songs from Paloma's MySpace era (all written and recorded around 2005/2006), probably done with Ian Barter.

Glamour - classic Paloma, fans of "Upside Down" will surely enjoy this one:

Trampoline - a pop rock bop reminiscent of "Luv Ya" and reasonably left off the album for being too different sonically:

Coloured Life - crappy audio quality of this song doesn't overshadow its jazzy vibes (most likely recorded with Paloma's band):

I remember there being much more of these early songs/demos with titles such as "The Bloody Flower", "Falling" (yes, a different song with that name), "Free" etc. but they seem to be wiped off the internet, which is a shame. At least my faves, "Glamour" and "Trampoline", are still available.

 

You guys are on it with calling the songs so far...



I’d Die For You



(From: Infinite Things)

Average: 6.61

High Scorers: 8.3 x 1 (@saviodxl) 8 x 1 (@Disco Tears)

Low Scorers: 4 x 1 (@Phonetics Girl )

‘I’d Die For You’ is Track 11 on Infinite Things. The track was written with Jake Portrait (bassist of psychedelic rock band Unknown Mortal Orchestra) and Patrick Wimberly (from Chairlift). The song is produced by 4 different people!

My Thoughts: ​

(7.6) I really like the production at the beginning of the song. All the elements are there and then it just doesn’t really go anywhere. Paloma’s vocals seem a bit empty on this one.

Commentary:

@Maki (6.5) There's something annoying about this one. I don't hate it and some nice percussion is going on, but this is disposable on the grand scale.

Next time: we return to the debut album, yet again...​

 

My Legs Are Weak



(From: Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful?)

Average: 6.63

High Scorers: 9 x 1 (@Phonetics Girl)

Low Scorers: 3.5 x 1 (@Markus1981)

‘My Legs Are Weak’ was written and produced with Samuel Dixon. Dixon also worked on the already eliminated ‘Press Lightly’. I literally can't find any other information online, so there you have it!

My Thoughts: (7.5) The lyrics on this are beautiful. It is so dreary though, especially in the verses. The final chorus is a moment though.

Commentary:

@Maki (8.25) I love the contrast between the calm 60s-inspired verses and the explosive chorus. I mean, the drama just wins me over here - that final chorus! It's not perfect, obviously, mainly because I think it would've worked better without a middle-8, which makes it go on for a bit longer than needed.

Next time: we lose our first 10 and two songs in a row from the same album​