The Rise, And Rise Of Paloma Faith

Paloma Faith Blomfield was born in 1985 to a Spanish father and English mother who separated when Paloma was just two years old.  She was raised by her mother in Hackney, East London, who encouraged Paloma to perform from an early age.  As well as singing she has also done some acting appearing in films St Trinians and the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnarsus.  

I fell in love with Paloma Faith in 2009 when I first heard her debut album, Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful, a record that barely made a dent in the charts when it was first released.  I did a lot of banging on about this woman and several of my friends purchased the album and were mesmerized by this lady's brilliance.  
Despite this it seemed like nothing she was doing at the time was working, several single releases still saw only modest sales of the album and I remember reading an interview that she did with music website Pop Justice where she said she felt she would soon be dropped by her record label due to poor sales, a claim Sony records refuted.
But she persevered.  She toured extensively around the UK, made appearances on any Radio and TV show that would have her and slowly but surely momentum grew and sales shot up.  The album eventually went platinum, over a year after it's original release with sales of over 500,000 copies in the UK, proof that hard work really does pay off. 

On February 29th this year Paloma revealed her second album would be called Fall To Grace and she has enlisted producers Nellee Hooper, (Madonna) and Jake Gosling.  The success was much more rapid, partly due the fan base she had garnered but also due to the success of the fantastic single Picking Up The Pieces which debuted at number seven in May, and is still hanging around the top twenty now almost eight weeks later.  The album shot to number two in the UK Album Chart and received excellent reviews from fans and critics alike and selling 83,000 copies (so far) in the UK alone.

Her live performances have also been well received as she mixes her stunning vocal ability with a show full of elegance and grace that has captivated audiences and made her one of the must see live performers of the last few years.  She will embark on a full UK tour early 2013 which I will be lucky enough to see.

For me Paloma is one the most exciting female artists around at the moment, her voice is instantly distinctive and her songs are full of beautiful, well written and well crafted songs, many of which, like New York, Picking Up The Pieces and Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful will be hailed as classics in years to come.  I'm incredibly proud of what Paloma has managed to achieve, she fully deserves it and I'm happy I was there to witness this brilliant artists rise from the very beginning.  




Catch Paloma Faith at a concert venue near you in early 2013!

Scissor Sisters Baby Come Home Single Release

The Scissor Sisters release their third single Baby Come Home this coming Sunday which is from their latest album Magic Hour.  Although not as good as their older stuff it's certainly the best of a bad bunch when it comes to this new collection.


I'm not sure what's happened to the Sisters lately, I remember when I first heard Tits On The Radio some nine years ago, it was on a free sampler I got with one of the music magazines.  It was fresh, funky and funny and the debut album didn't disappoint.  It's been a steady decline in quality since.  The second album Ta Dah was good in parts, then we had Night Work which had some highlights but nothing amazing, and now Magic Hour.  It is possibly one of the worst albums I have ever had to listen to with hardly any redeeming features.  It's a shame really because they really are an amazing band, and fantastic live but this just smells of a band burnt out.


Here's the video:

Elton John V's Pnau Album Review

Good Morning To The Night                                      

****

Mercury Records

Available now

   

Pnau (pronounced Pah-Now) are an Australian dance duo who originated in Sydney.  Nick Littlemore and Peter Mayes have had massive success in Australia both as Pnau and side project Empire Of The Sun but it's their work with Elton John that is getting them heard over here in the UK.

'Good Morning To The Night' sees the due take Elton John's back catalogue (from mainly the 1970's) and completely flip the songs taking a word from one, a line from another and mixed over an electronic beat to create a completely new bang up to date tune.  
This is something I don't think has been done before, especially to this degree, as most songs include between three and six different songs.  


The lead single, Say Good Morning To The Night would sit happily in an Ibiza play list with it's sexy house beat and whispered vocals.  It contains excerpts from 8 different Elton tracks including Tonight, Funeral For A Friend and Goodbye Yellow Brick road to create a single song that sounds fresh and current.  
New single Sad borrows heavily from Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word and is, again, a fantastic synth led creation that has a jaunty seventies feel to it.  
Black Icy Stare is another highlight and sounds like something the Scissor Sisters really should be making, listening to the chorus you can really see where Jake got his inspiration for their early work.
Phoenix is probably the album highlight for me as it is simply beautiful and even though it includes 9 original songs this doesn't make it heavy or bogged down, and it moves along at such a pace it's all over before you know it.   


This whole project could have been a disaster had the duo not had the vision they have, instead of making an album that is weighed down by over production or being sample heavy, it remains relatively simple in it's execution and delivery.
The only song I dislike is Telegraph To The Afterlife, it's maudlin and quite depressing but I guess offers some respite to the dance fuelled other tracks.


At only eight songs it's a relatively short album, but this is all they needed, any more could well have been overkill.


Any fan of Elton's will love this, as will anyone who enjoys good music, all in all a great album, and the duo deserve a great deal of recognition for what they have achieved here.

Good Morning To The Night;

Sad;

Nelly Furtado New Video

Nelly yesterday posted her new video for Spirit Indestructible on line.  This is the second single to be lifted from her fifth album of the same name, which has a UK release date of September 17th. 

I wasn't much of a fan of first single Big Hoops, but this is much better, it has a nice electronic feel to it inkeeping with her new style, her voive sounds good if not perhaps whiney at times but all in all this is a good return to form for Miss Furtado.

Is It All Over For Madonna?

I have been a massive fan of Madonna's since I was a child and to me she will always remain the Queen of Pop.  She is arguably the greatest living icon we have and no one can ever take away the enormous success she has achieved through the course of her career, selling 300 millions records and being awarded the biggest selling female artist of all time is something her contemporaries can only dream about.  
But has she come to end to her career?

The success of her latest album MDNA has been limited, I for one think it to be her worst album in years, if not ever, and the current promotional tour has left many feeling unenthused and upset.
I refused to attend the MDNA tour, one because I hate the album and two because of the tickets costs.  I'm not sure what planet she is on thinking people should have to pay hundreds of pounds to watch her lip sink for less than two hours but she must be a little deluded if not self obsessed.  The tour itelf has been critised for not containing enough of her back catalogue, but Madonna has always aimed to please herself over anyone else.

What frustrates me the most with Madonna is she is no longer a trend setter, she is now following others and trying a little too hard to be down with the kids.
When I first listened to MDNA with it's childish and pointless lyrics I couldn't help but go back and listen to her earlier offerings and wonder where it all went wrong.  Listening to the likes of Rain, You'll See, Open Your Heart, Like A Prayer, Live to Tell, Frozen and Hung Up fills me with joy.  This is Madonna at her best, slick production, edgy video's, beautiful and well crafted songs that will stand the test of time.  People still say the albums True Blue, Ray Of Light, Confessions On A Dancefloor and Like A Prayer are pop masterpieces, I can't see people saying that about MDNA or it's predecessor Hard Candy in 20, 10 or even 5 years time.  Many would argue that these albums are only so good due to the production team involved, and that her close personal friendships with people in the music business are what's kept her affloat for the best part of 30 years, and this is possibly true but it's also fair to say that Madonna picked these producers and chose to associate with these people which for me simply highlights her artistic prowess. 

Now of course, Madonna has had blips in the past.  Erotica and Bedtime Stories were panned and commercial flops when they were released so maybe she can bounce back with something life changing again in the future, because after all the SEX fiasco she released Ray Of Light, one of the best albums of the nineties which contained Frozen, one of her greatest ever singles.
She was also criticised when she released American Life, and selling just four million copies worldwide, it's the lowest selling album of her career but she followed that with the fantastic Confessions On A Dancefloor, which for me is one the most important and accomplished pop albums of all time.  
So it's fair to say that Madonna's success and reception has always been patchy, but even in the past, when it hasn't quite worked at least she was doing what she wanted, pushing the boundaries and delivering something new and exciting, now it just looks like she is trying too hard, as if she is scared of the likes of Britney, GaGa, RiRi and Minaj.  But she needn't be, she is the Queen of Pop and she always will be.  She has a legacy that will never be matched and a fan base that will never go away.  She broke down boundaries, reinvented popular music and influenced generations of female artists like P!nk, JLo, Britney, Christina, Kylie and the like who owe Madonna a great deal for forging a path that everyone else has followed.  
She is our greatest living pop star and she will always be a superstar of stratospheric proportions and who knows, if she can stop trying so hard maybe the next album will be another Confessions, Like A Prayer or Ray Of Light. 
Let's hope so.

Script Announce New Single Title

The Script have released the name of their new single. Hall Of Fame will be taken from their new album #3 in September...

New Up Coming Artist - Joe Hampton

The point of this blog is so I can introduce new talent to people that you may not hear about otherwise, and as such let us introduce Joe Hampton.


Joe is from Wolverhampton in the West Midlands and attends university in Chester.  Aside from studying History he's pretty good with a guitar as well.


I'm not going to bang on, I'll let his music do the talking;


Beauty Of The Sun

And there's more on his official MySpace page; 
www.myspace.com/joehamptonmusic


Joe is currently unsigned so if you like what you hear please share the video with your friends...