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You are here: Polari Magazine / Music / Can’t Rely On You • Paloma Faith

Paloma Faith

Can’t Rely On You

★★★★★
Paloma Faith
3:20 min • RCA • February 23, 2014
John Preston reviews
…………………………………………………………………………………………

Paloma Faith has made a record that many won’t have expected her to. The first single from her forthcoming third album A Perfect Contradiction is – and let’s just get this out of the way with quickly – a bit like the hugely irritating but equally as enjoyable ‘Blurred Lines’. This is because it’s produced by Pharrell Williams and is pulled out from his retro-indebted James Brown/Marvin Gaye file rather than the zapping, car alarm and stun gun loaded capsule that he used to dazzle us with at the turn of the decade.

Paloma Faith has always cast herself as the semi-tragic and betrayed glamazon, albeit one who refuses to take herself too seriously. As confirmed by the single’s title, there’s been little change (see also the epic and hysterical video below). Punctuated with many a “hey!”, “come on with it”, “help me”, “oh lord” and Pharrell himself declaring “I don’t know what this world is coming to”, it succeeds in being both deliciously funky and also her most explicitly pop moment to date.

With Faith turning in a soulful, periodically histrionic vocal that, when combined with the brass stabs and euphoric sonic mood, has an energy and sparkle that her last album, the surprisingly safe and considered Fall To Grace, lacked. Admittedly the middle eight isn’t much more than the addition of Pharrell’s much loved cowbell and the song is certainly solid if not brilliant. ‘Can’t Rely On You’ still manages to bode well for an album which promises to see Paloma come face to face with her hi-energy inclinations, with her inner dance floor obsessions being bought to the fore. It’s an interesting, and potentially hugely entertaining, re-think for Ms Faith.

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Polari Magazine is an LGBT arts and culture magazine that explores the subculture by looking at what is important to the people who are in it. It’s about the lives we lead, not the lifestyles we’re supposed to lead.

Its content is informed & insightful, and features a diverse range of writers from every section of the community. Its intent is to help LGBT readers learn about their own heritage and to sustain a link between the present and the past.

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  • Polari Magazine 2008-2014December 3, 2014 - 6:16 pm
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  • Future Islands • GigDecember 2, 2014 - 1:41 pm
  • Puppets with Attitude (at Christmas)December 1, 2014 - 6:30 pm
  • The Aesthetic of Voyeurism: Interview with Antonio Da SilvaDecember 1, 2014 - 1:25 pm
  • Broke With Expensive Taste • Azealia BanksNovember 28, 2014 - 3:59 pm
  • Royalty Strutting on an American College Stage: Miss and Mr. Gay ISU 2014November 27, 2014 - 2:59 pm
  • Bright Light Bright Light: Everything I Ever WantedNovember 26, 2014 - 11:15 am
  • Jaime Nanci And The Blueboys: ‘Toy’ TalkNovember 25, 2014 - 4:09 pm

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