Paloma Faith – The Glorification of Sadness Review

Meandering singles means one of two things. Paloma Faith has hidden away her best efforts or is fumbling around in the shadows of pop-soul. The Glorification of Sadness is a mixed bag in all though the longevity and quality Faith has shown in the past does mean it is easy to place some confidence in this latest release. Positive signs begin to appear on opener Sweatpants, the desire for unconditional love when the world around us whirrs away on beauty rather than truth. The Glorification of Sadness does well to compartmentalise the worries and troubles of the everyday, though in doing so becomes everyday itself. It can be heard in the passive singles How You Leave a Man and Bad Woman. Those spotty releases are representative of the broad and simple core. 

A featuring performance of a croaky-sounding Kojey Radical on Pressure delves into (you guessed it) the pressures of living. But the issue is in hearing the troubles of everyday life highlighted by a completely different classification. Pressures come and go, and are different for everyone, though The Glorification of Sadness lacks the specifics necessary to mount an emotional charge and instead hopes to rely on solid mixing. Plodding and pedestrian empowerment filters through every other song. The momentum of the mood and message on Pressure and God in a Dress is identical. The wedding-like organ on Nothing More Human Than Failure marks even the interlude as a rambling and harmonised gospel flicker.  

Because of the lack of depth and difference, there is a sense of self-pity. Vaguely relatable number Cry On The Dance Floor has a neat tech funk to it. But a nice backing track does little to cover the filtered comments of lust and recalling some vague day on the dancefloor. Faith describes the room around her rather than the emotional complexities which lead her to feeling an emotional outburst while flailing around in a room full of strangers. There is no underlying cause or reaction, it is just loosely picked words to render The Glorification of Sadness as, ironically, a piece of music which does as its title mocks. Let It Ride tries to pass itself off as passive but some exceptional guitar work marks it as the most in-touch and alive piece of all.  

Do not get too excited – the likes of Eat Shit and Die are around the corner. Embarrassing stuff which lacks the punch of its simplicity and misses the point of expletives. Faith still has a strong voice it is just a shame to hear it wasted with such frequency on The Glorification of Sadness. From Divorce on a poor reliance on relatively plain trip-hop beats, the safety net is cast wide as Faith pools her resources to try and carve out some defiant hit. This is the point of The Glorification of Sadness – it is expressly written and made to try and crack the relatability of other artists whose experience feels genuine. Faith is either having a hard time bringing her thoughts and feelings to the forefront or is bereft of new thoughts. Either way, it is a crunch and struggle to listen to as the generalities lend themselves to nobody.