Paloma Faith review: Political with small ‘p’ but songs still matter

The singer returns to the limelight with an intimate gig at the BBC Radio Theatre
Keeping the faith: Singer Paloma performs to a small audience of competition winners
Dave Benett
David Smyth11 December 2017

Though she made her live return wearing the colours of the EU flag and compared her imminent fourth album to Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, Paloma Faith insisted her new music is only political with a small p.

The Architect, out next week, even has a cameo from political journalist Owen Jones (as well as John Legend and Samuel L Jackson) but as Faith told the small audience of Radio 2 competition winners, it’s really about “kindness, compassion and love”.

Lost And Lonely, a soulful highlight with sparkling backing vocals, was inspired by a documentary about a woman who died at home and wasn’t found for three years. Faith sang from the perspective of her skeleton. She had less compassion for whoever ran the smoke machine, twice insisting it be switched off to protect her voice.

She hasn’t sung in public for a while. This was effectively her first day back at work after her first child was born last December in less than smooth circumstances. When you’ve “been to the gates of hell and brought back an angel”, as she put it, you can do anything. That means accepting an offcut from A-list songwriter Sia, Warrior, and delivering it as a powerful anthem for asylum seekers.

A set with two thirds of new songs in front of 400 people was never going to earn the full rapture Faith may have desired, but there was enough to suggest she could be on her way to her fourth double-platinum album.

Paloma Faith performs at the O2 Arena on March 14 (the02.co.uk)

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