Paloma Faith - The Architect

The Guardian 60

(RCA)

If Paloma Faith hadn’t trumpeted The Architect as her “political with a small ‘p’” album, it might sound just like another big, brassy retro soul collection about love and heartache. It’s far from obvious that the swaggering Guilty apparently expresses the thoughts of a regretful Brexit voter (“I’m living in my worst fears / Begging you back through tears”). Samuel L Jackson’s opening monologue about revolution is far more direct than the subsequent title track’s oblique apparent references to domestic violence. Owen Jones’s rousing speech about the politics of hope leads only to the wishy-washy Kings and Queens.

However, there’s plenty of the big-voiced, Amy Winehouse/Lisa Stansfield-type pop that saw Faith’s first three albums go double platinum. The John Legend duet I’ll Be Gentle is trademark classy schmaltz and the Sia-penned Warrior addresses refugees on the vaguest terms. Nobody will storm parliament after hearing this, but Faith’s heart’s in the right place.

The Guardian 60

(RCA)

After perfecting her mildly kooky retro-soul sound across three albums, The Architect messes with the Paloma Faith formula, lyrics-wise at least. Gently pulsating lead single Crybaby, for example, is about fragile masculinity; the title track is a typically dramatic ballad sung from the perspective of planet Earth addressing humanity, while the doo-wop stylings of WW3 deal with impending catastrophe. For the most part these more outward-looking conceits are housed in familiar musical settings – the Bond theme-lite Guilty feels like a song she’s released five times already – but there’s fun to be had in Til I’m Done’s plastic disco shimmy and the skipping, featherlight pop of Kings and Queens.