The ghost of Amy Winehouse haunts this hit LP, from Paloma Faith’s heady retro-soul vocals, to her Susan Sontag-in-Bride of Frankenstein bouffant, to the lyric “I know a girl who drinks herself to sleep at night/You can’t change her.” Yet faulting a modern U.K. diva for channeling Winehouse is like faulting a punk band for sounding like the Ramones. Faith blends a fierce old-school vocal attack (the Dusty in Memphis drama on “Beauty of the End”) with new-school flexibility (the disco-diva turn on “Blood, Sweat & Tears”). The material, featuring production by U.K. soul vet Nellee Hooper (Soul II Soul), could be more memorable, but give her time: Winehouse took a while to ramp up, too.
Listen to 'Fall to Grace'
