Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The cathartic nature of art is such that in the worst moments of our life we can find something in the ether or a structure created by hands in tune with grief, melancholy, or even the desperation of objectionable misery, that will raise the spirit, give meaning to the time in such a way that it aids forgiveness of our own mistakes, as much as it furthers the embrace of clemency with those who sought to destroy us.

It is in art that we might meet half way in accord to that which caused wretchedness, and for an artist the sense of pressure to attain such a state of grace can be just as overwhelming, by delving into the emotions we can leave ourselves open to scars that run too deep to heal, we can be ridiculed, accused of wallowing in a place which is dictated by the fashionable resonance and with a crowd willing to be pulled along in tow and sharing their grief.

We need art to heal, but to those artists who like physicians are told to heal themselves, the sense of the cathartic can be a double-edged sword, and perhaps for the ever-poignant thought of Paloma Faith, the sense of her affection in life and the loss suffered, makes The Glorification Of Sadness one of her more ambitious, affecting, and detailed albums to date.

It is the personal zeitgeist, the remembrance of the moment that makes the album as appealing as it does, the full immersion into the personal and not holding back from anything that would alter the perception, the truth, of her feelings, anger, and stance as each song plays out.

Across tracks such as Pressure, God In A Dress, the superb How You Leave A Man, There’s Nothing More Human Than Failure, and Divorce, the mindset of the artist is shown to be exactly what she preaches, human, allowed to feel the pain just as anyone else, who understands that it is not a privilege to discuss these emotional reactions, but a necessity, an obligation to one’s soul, and in Paloma Faith’s own ability to unpack these moments of her life, so the listener is placed willingly as the responder to the pain, and they are the ones who face the anguish with her.

An album that offers a sense of the essential existentialism, of being true to the faith of despair and the inevitability of damage control. A proud moment surely for the artist.

Ian D. Hall