Interview with Paloma Faith

Paloma Faith talks to Jecs Davies about her new album ‘The Glorification of Sadness’

I spoke to English singer and actress Paloma Faith about her most personal album to date following her divorce

‘The Glorification of Sadness’ consists of 17 tracks which Paloma says is a chronological journey through the cracking of an adult relationship, and with it a family. The album is a celebration of finding your way back after leaving a long-term relationship, being empowered even in your failures and taking responsibility for your own happiness.

It includes Paloma’s 2023 single ‘How You Leave a Man’ as well as her songs ‘Bad Woman’ and ‘Pressure’ featuring Kojey Radical. She told us that these tracks “seemed to be everyone’s favourites” although for her, she loves to dance to ‘Cry on the Dancefloor’.

Paloma also included three interlude tracks which use lyrics that never developed into actual songs. When I asked her why she chose to keep them in it she said: “I like to think of them as sort of like mantras and they make the album much more intimate.”

At the beginning of the 12th track ‘Divorce’, listeners will notice the sound of Paloma’s children’s voices, which she says “just makes it even sadder.”

In her 2021 BBC documentary ‘As I Am’, Paloma was very open about the challenges of being a pop star and a mother. Now as a single mother, she is confronting the public’s assumption that the split must be her fault, or that she should have tolerated misery for the sake of her kids.

“‘How to Leave a Man’ is meant to be empowering,” Paloma said. “It’s about taking control and responsibility for your own happiness as a woman. There’s no room for a woman to say, actually I just wasn’t really happy, especially when there’s kids involved. So, in this album, I’m trying to pull it in the direction of it being okay to take ownership of your own happiness and not be a victim.”

Particularly after the documentary, Paloma helped many women by sharing her experiences of birth, postnatal depression and being a mother. She said: “I have people approaching me in a really nice way because they’ve seen stuff I’ve said, and they want to speak candidly and intelligently about those subjects.”

She is now in the final stages of writing a book about her experiences as well as her aims for the feminist movement. People are saying that this is a ‘new era’ of Paloma, but what does this really mean? I asked and she responded: “It’s a new era in a psychological sense.”

Fans will be delighted to hear that to celebrate this, Paloma will embark on ‘The Glorification of Sadness Tour 2024’ across the UK and Ireland. She will be performing at the Bournemouth International Centre on 17 May and will also be headlining ‘Southampton Summer Sessions’ on 28 June.

Album review

By Jecs Davies

‘The Glorification of Sadness’ takes listeners through the stages of grieving a broken relationship. It begins with the acoustic-style song ‘Sweatpants’ where Paloma questions “Will you still love me when I’m crazy and undone? When my hair’s up and I’ve got my sweatpants on.” ‘Sweatpants’ taps into both the beginning of a relationship breakdown and the expectation that women must always look perfect to be loveable.

Then Paloma draws listeners to anger with songs such as ‘God in a Dress’ and ‘Bad Woman’ where she says “I might be feminine but I’m not delicate” and “You painted me this way then act surprised when I change.” After that we move to the depression phase in the song ‘Divorce’ and finally acceptance with tracks like ‘I AM ENOUGH’.

The album is, as one of the lyrics says, “a kind of cocktail of tragedy” containing strong spirits of feminism mixed with catchy tunes. It showcases Paloma Faith’s range through different genres and messages in each song and is some of her best music. Like Paloma, one of my favourite songs is ‘Cry on the Dancefloor’.