''A Perfect Contradiction'' is the third studio album by English recording artist

Paloma Faith Paloma Faith Blomfield (born 21 July 1981) is an English singer and actress. Her debut studio album, ''Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?,'' was released in 2009 and was certified double platinum in the UK. The album spawned the sing ...

, released by

Sony Music Entertainment Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainment ...

on 10 March 2014. Musically, the album is a pop album, with elements of R&B, jazz, soul, Motown and disco. The album received mixed reviews; it spawned six singles; "

Can't Rely on You "Can't Rely on You" is a song by English singer Paloma Faith, written by Faith and American singer and producer Pharrell Williams. The single, available for purchase from 23 February 2014, serves as the lead single from her third studio album, ' ...

", "

Only Love Can Hurt Like This "Only Love Can Hurt Like This" is a song by English singer Paloma Faith, written by Diane Warren. Released as the second single to promote her third studio album, ''A Perfect Contradiction'' (2014), on 11 May 2014, it was promoted on shows suc ...

", "

Trouble with My Baby "Trouble with My Baby" is a song by English singer Paloma Faith. It was released on 11 August 2014 as the third single to promote her third studio album, ''A Perfect Contradiction'' (2014). The song was used to promote series 8 of ''Britain's G ...

", "

Ready for the Good Life "Ready for the Good Life" is a song by English singer Paloma Faith. It was released on 7 November 2014 as the fourth single to promote her third studio album, ''A Perfect Contradiction'' (2014). The song was written by Faith, Klas Åhlund, Adam ...

", "Leave While I'm Not Looking" and "Beauty Remains"; the first two of these charted within the top 10 in the United Kingdom and "Only Love Can Hurt Like This" topped the charts in Australia. On 15 September 2014, it was announced that a repackaged version of the album, entitled ''A Perfect Contradiction: Outsiders' Edition'', will be released on 10 November 2014, postponed from the original date of 3 November 2014. It features three new songs as well as a rearranged version of " Changing", Faith's collaboration with

Sigma Sigma (; uppercase Σ, lowercase σ, lowercase in word-final position ς; grc-gre, σίγμα) is the eighteenth letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 200. In general mathematics, uppercase Σ is used as ...

Background

Paloma Faith had posted pictures of her recording her new album for several months on Instagram. She then announced that her new album would be entitled ''A Perfect Contradiction''. On 13 January 2014 Faith premiered the video for the album's lead single, "

". The single was produced by

Pharrell Williams Pharrell Lanscilo Williams (; born April 5, 1973) is an American record producer, rapper, singer, and songwriter. Alongside close colleague Chad Hugo, he formed the hip hop and R&B production duo the Neptunes in the early 1990s, with whom he ...

, who wrote the song along with Faith. Paloma previewed the song "Love Only Leaves You Lonely" at a June 2013 performance in Liverpool, and has since made the song available as a pre-order preview on the

iTunes Store The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...

. The song "Only Love Can Hurt Like This" was premiered in a stripped back acoustic version on Amazon, and the song was later performed at a Burberry fashion show in February 2014. 90-second previews of all the songs were made available in February 2014 on iTunes, before Faith streamed the album on

SoundCloud SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming se ...

via ''

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'' a few days before the album's release. The album's release was promoted with appearances on various UK radio and TV shows, including a performance on the final of ''The Voice UK'' Series 3.

Writing

The second single from the album, "

", was written entirely by

Diane Warren Diane Eve Warren (born September 7, 1956) is an American songwriter. She has received several awards including a Grammy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, three ''Billboard'' Music Awards and an Honorary Academy Award. Wa ...

, who has written for Faith twice again, towards the single "Leave While I'm Not Looking" (Featured on the outsider's edition of Faith's third studio album "A Perfect Contradiction"), and "The Crazy Ones" (Featured as the main theme of the film " Miss You Already"). "Impossible Heart" was written by

Faith Faith, derived from Latin ''fides'' and Old French ''feid'', is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or In the context of religion, one can define faith as "belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion". Religious people often ...

and Christopher Braide, who had previously worked with

on her second studio album "

Fall to Grace ''Fall to Grace'' is the second studio album by English recording artist Paloma Faith. It was released by RCA Records on 28 May 2012. She worked on the album with producer Nellee Hooper, who previously worked with artists such as Madonna, Bjö ...

" towards the song " 30 Minute Love Affair". Both songs used synthesized instrumentation. "Impossible Heart" was not released as a single. "

" was originally written with

Steve Robson Steve Robson is an English songwriter and record producer who has sold in excess of 138 million records around the world. He has written and produced 12 no 1 UK/US singles, 38 no 1 UK/US albums and a further 41 top 5 UK/US albums and singles. H ...

in synchronisation with Faith's previous album ''

'', but was considered by Faith as "inappropriate" or "misfitting" in regards of the theme of ''Fall to Grace''. As a result, the song was saved for a later album, specifically "A Perfect Contradiction".

Critical reception

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, ''A Perfect Contradiction'' received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 66, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on 10 reviews. ''

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'' made this comment and called the album "solid but unsurprising". Further commenting: "There's often a temptation for soul singers to turn out albums full of ballads, so kudos to Paloma for coming up with something lively and largely mid to uptempo. In fact, the Diane Warren-penned 'Only Love Can Hurt Like This' is her only truly big ballad moment; the sumptuous big band production and throaty vocal reminiscent of Dusty Springfield or Sandie Shaw." The album earned 3 stars out of 5 from ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', saying it was "consistent but formulaic: horns plus wailing vocals plus Motown feel start to grate by the end of the record. Faith's voice is all there, but her songwriting calls for added ingenuity." ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'' gave the album 2 stars out of 5, again making the comment that the album was upbeat but generic, while ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' gave 3 stars out of 5 from, who said "Faith has a nice ear for melody and smart turn of phrase. She sounds like a one woman Phil Spector girl group on Taste My Own Tears, and does a slick, jazzy soul turn on Other Woman. It may be nothing new but her punchy, uplifting set of pastiche Sixties and Seventies soul, r’n’b and disco is perfectly pitched with just an appealing hint of exaggeration." ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' gave the album 3 stars out of 5, commenting on a lack of originality but complimenting "Can't Rely on You"

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

gave the album a very positive review, giving it 4 stars out of 5, calling the production of the album slick and funky, complementing the new musical direction, highlighting the new sound of disco, and '70's soul-influences on the album. Further commented: "Ultimately, it's Faith's irrepressible enthusiasm and unbridled vocal ability that shine the most on A Perfect Contradiction, and having musicians like Pharrell and Saadiq around just works to sweeten the deal."

Commercial performance

''A Perfect Contradiction'' debuted on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

at number two, beaten by ''

The Take Off and Landing of Everything ''The Take Off and Landing of Everything'' is the sixth studio album by English rock band Elbow, released in the UK, Europe, and Australia through Fiction Records and Polydor Records on 10 March 2014 and in the US on Concord Records on 11 March 2 ...

'' by

Elbow The elbow is the region between the arm and the forearm that surrounds the elbow joint. The elbow includes prominent landmarks such as the olecranon, the cubital fossa (also called the chelidon, or the elbow pit), and the lateral and the media ...

from the top spot. The album spent 29 weeks inside the top 10. On 22 August 2014 the album received a Platinum certification for selling over 300,000 copies in the UK. After the single "

" reached number one in Australia, the album jumped up from number 15 on the charts to its peak at number four, becoming Faith's highest-charting album in that country.Top 50 positions: The album also peaked at number 8 in Ireland, 17 in New Zealand, 41 in the Netherlands and 91 in Switzerland. "A Perfect Contradiction" became the sixth best selling album of 2014, and the best selling album for a female artist in the UK. It had sold a total of 342,000 copies in the UK as of October 2014. On 20 February 2015 it was certified double platinum for sales exceeding 600,000 copies in the UK.

Singles

The first single from the album, "

", was written with, and produced by, Pharrell Williams and reached number 10 on the UK Top 40 charts in its first week. It was released on 23 February 2014, although the song had been premiered on YouTube, along with its music video (which is directed by Paul Gore and features Faith speaking in Italian in an elaborate retro introduction), the previous month, and had been playing on UK radio since then. It is Faith's second Top 10 single, following 2012's " Picking Up the Pieces". In late March 2014, Faith announced on her social networking sites that "

" would be the second single from the album. The single's video, directed by Paul Gore, was premiered on 28 April 2014 with the single being released on 11 May 2014. It reached number 6 in the UK Singles Chart becoming Faith's highest-charting single there. In Australia the song peaked at number one, also becoming Faith's highest-charting single there. The third single, "

", was officially confirmed by Faith on 27 June 2014, with the video for the song (directed by Paul Gore) to premiere at midnight on 30 June 2014. The song was later confirmed to have an 11 August 2014 release date. It did not chart within the top 100 on the UK Singles Chart due to lack of promotion. "

" was released as the lead single and overall fourth single from the repackaged version of ''A Perfect Contradiction'' on 9 November 2014. It reached number 68 on the UK Singles Chart for the week ending 16 November 2014. Although Faith confirmed during her 2014 tour that a video was filmed for the song, it ultimately was not released. "Leave While I'm Not Looking", penned by Diane Warren as a follow-up to Faith's highest-charting single "Only Love Can Hurt Like This", was announced in late November 2014 to be the album's fifth single. The single received minimal promotion and airplay; it also did not receive a music video. "Beauty Remains" was announced in February 2015 to be the sixth single from the album. Faith confirmed that the song was based around love, and as a result of this held a Valentine's Day competition on her social media sites. The song, along with an accompanying music video classified as suitable for those aged 15 and upwards, was released in March 2015, and despite an appearance on the final of ''

The Voice UK ''The Voice UK'' is a British singing competition television series. Created by John de Mol, it premiered on BBC One during the spring television cycle on 24 March 2012. Based on the original ''The Voice of Holland'', and part of ''The Voice ...

'', the song did not chart in any territories.

Tour

To promote ''A Perfect Contradiction'', Faith embarked her third concert tour on 23 May 2014, called Paloma Faith Autumn Tour 2014. Originally visiting European countries, Faith announced new tour dates for Australia and the United States and a UK arena tour in August through September 2014. The concert tour consisted of a total of 66 dates and ended in Australia on 16 May 2015.

Track listing

Notes * signifies an additional record producer. * signifies a vocal producer. * signifies a co-record producer. *"The Bigger You Love (The Harder You Fall)" is a Sisters Love cover. *At the

BBC Proms The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...

did perform fifteen songs, although six were not included in the "Deluxe Outsider's Edition" -see above. The omitted tracks are: "Love Only Leaves You Lonely", "Taste My Own Tears", " Let Me Down Easy" (a Bettye LaVette cover), "All Night Long" (a Keely Smith cover), " Picking Up The Pieces", and the

encore An encore is an additional performance given by performers after the planned show has ended, usually in response to extended applause from the audience.Lalange Cochrane, in ''Oxford Companion to Music'', Alison Latham, ed., Oxford University Pres ...

, "Freedom".

Personnel

Adapted from AllMusic. *

The Dap-Kings Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings were an American funk and soul band signed to Daptone Records. They were part of a revival movement of mid-1960s to mid-1970s style funk and soul music. They released their debut album ''Dap Dippin in 2002, the fir ...

– horns *Luke Potashnick – guitar *Sam Miller – engineer *Justin Merrill – engineer *Chris Galland – assistant *Rob Barron – piano *Paloma Faith – background vocals, lead vocals *

Seye Adelekan Seye Adelekan (born 15 May 1988), sometimes known mononymously as Seye ( ), is a Nigerian British bassist, musician and singer-songwriter, best known as the live bassist for Gorillaz since 2017. Early life Seye Adelekan was born in Nigeria t ...

– guitar, background vocals *Tom Rees-Roberts – trumpet,

flugelhorn The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B, though some ...

*Tom Hough – engineer *Gharah Degeddingseze – producer, string arrangements, horn arrangements, additional production, instrumentation *Rick Bryant – assistant *Mario Luccy – engineer *Rory More –

Hammond B3 Hammond may refer to: People * Hammond Innes (1913–1998), English novelist * Hammond (surname) * Justice Hammond (disambiguation) Places Antarctica * Hammond Glacier, Antarctica Australia *Hammond, South Australia, a small settlement in South ...

*Dave Guy – trumpet *Mike Horner – assistant engineer *Plan B – producer *Dave Okumu – producer, instrumentation *Taura Stinson – vocal producer, background vocals *Mike Larson – mixing *Joy Joseph – percussion *Ben Drew – background vocals *Wayne Gordon – assistant *James Gardiner-Bateman – alto saxophone, horn arrangements, baritone saxophone *Kyle Townsend – vocal producer *Alalal – engineer *Christopher Braide – producer *Bryan "Bdub" White – bass *Steve Payne – guitar *Delbert Bowers – assistant *David Standish – photography *Roberto Angrisani – background vocals *Naomi Miller – background vocals *Obenewa Aboah – background vocals *Tom Wright-goss – Bass, Guitar *Kieron McIntosh – organ, keyboards, trumpet, piano, programming, additional production, background vocals *Nick Brown – assistant *Simon Guzman – assistant *Andy Menhenitt – assistant *Komi Hakam – drum programming *Baby N Sola – background vocals *Jerry "JL" Lang – drum programming *Janelle Martin – background vocals *Aisha Shreena – background vocals *Dylan – instrumentation, keyboards, producer *Manny Marroquin – mixing *Andrea Martin – background vocals *Stuart Matthewman – engineer, vocal producer *Raphael Saadiq – producer, instrumentation *John Davis – mastering *Aisha McCray – background vocals *Femio Hernández – mixing assistant, assistant *Geoff Gascoyne – bass *Cochemea Gastelum – baritone saxophone *Joi Gilliam – background vocals *Pharrell Williams – arranger, background vocals, producer, instrumentation *Gerry Brown – engineer *Neal Sugarman – tenor saxophone *A.C. Burrell – producer, horn arrangements, additional production, instrumentation, vocal producer, string arrangements *Andrew Coleman – engineer *Gabriel Roth – horn engineer *Hart Gunther – arranger, digital editing, engineer *Eric Appapoulaye – bass, hammond b3, piano, drums, background vocals, additional production *Trevor Mires – bass trombone, tenor trombone *Dan Parry – mixing *Mr. Hudson – guitar, programming, engineer, producer, drums, percussion *Chris Braide – vocal producer *Betty Wright – background vocals

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications

Release history

''Outsiders' Edition''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perfect Contradiction 2014 albums Paloma Faith albums Albums produced by Raphael Saadiq Albums produced by Pharrell Williams Albums produced by Mr Hudson Albums produced by Steve Robson