Tag: paloma faith

#Review: Paloma Faith @ Brighton Centre, Brighton – 16/10/21

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On Saturday 16th October 2021, Paloma Faith arrived in Brighton to perform a string of her biggest hits, fan favourites and cuts from her latest album, Infinite Things, with support from Josef Salvat. Here’s what we had to say about the show…

Josef Salvat

Josef Salvat is an Australian singer and songwriter, who graced the stage with his wonderfully quirky shirt and trouser combo and thrilled the audience with his unique brand of pop music. The performer had a diverse vocal style and even did a rendition of Rihanna‘s ‘Diamonds’.

Highlight: Closing the set with his latest single, ‘I’m Sorry’, was a brilliant ending to his performance; the song is upbeat and catchy as hell so really worked the crowd up before Paloma Faith.

Paloma Faith

As the lights dimmed, Paloma Faith took to the stage to perform ‘Last Night On Earth’ with an eruption of applause and cheering from the audience. During the first song, she addressed the crowd and spoke about how after the pandemic we should focus on the here and the now as we don’t know what tomorrow might bring; truly meaningful words from the singer-songwriter.

She performed the first song in front of a curtain for the majority of the track before it came down to reveal a rather simplistic stage set (for her). Accompanying her, was a largely female-dominated group of musicians and backing singers; all of whom were incredibly talented in their own right.

Dressed in an edgy, backless leather dress and a vibrant red pixie wig, the singer wowed her crowd with not only her superbly powerful vocals but wonderful anecdotes behind some of her songs and of motherhood and getting older too. She even made reference to her skin’s elasticity having gone and it being perfect in a plane crash to help her land safely.

Paloma‘s set was engaging on an interactive level, as her personality and charisma shone through, plus she packed it full of songs not only from her latest album, Infinite Things, but a massive selection of fan favourites and huge hits were spread across the duration of the show too.

At one point, she tells the crowd that her latest album is her favourite as it’s more personal than others she’s put out and reveals it’s probably the only one she’s released that she’d actually buy herself. That said, she knows how to have fun with a lot of her older material too, stunning the audience with cuts all the way back to her first album.

She even performs a cover of Chaka Khan‘s ‘I’m Every Woman’ and tells us how she was once invited to share the stage with the iconic singer but knew none of the words, bring her to face her fears and perform the song herself.

The great thing is that from about half way through the set, no one is sitting down any longer as the singer encourages everyone to get up and dance and you can see people are truly living in the moment.

Paloma is a character, that’s for sure, but her powerful voice only adds to the enjoyment of the show. She is someone who needs to be seen live as she not only knows how to put on an incredible show, but she will have you singing and dancing in no time. If you haven’t caught her on this tour, then grab yourself some tickets for her 2022 tour, ‘Age of Optimism Tour’.

Highlights:

  • The between-song interactions with the audience were wonderful; they were genuine and truly witty, making the crowd feel closer to her as a person.
  • Getting everyone out of their seats and on their feet and dancing made for a great experience.
  • ‘Gold’, Crybaby’, ‘Picking Up The Pieces’, ‘Changing’ and ‘Lullaby’ were definitely some of the highlights from the set.

📷 All of the photos in this post are credited to Michael Hundertmark 📸
Why not give him a follow on Instagram and Twitter or check out his website.

 Setlist

Last Night On Earth
Gold*
Crybaby
Infinite Things
Guilty
Beautiful & Damned
If Loving You Was Easy (with Josef Salvat)
Stone Cold Sober / Stargazer / 30 Minute Love Affair / New York / Upside Down
Picking Up The Pieces*
Monster
Can’t Rely On You
I’m Every Woman (Chaka Khan Cover)*
Changing*
If This Is Goodbye

Encore
Better Than This
Lullaby*
Only Love Can Hurt Like This

* These songs can be viewed in the YouTube playlist, below.

Finally, I want to say a MASSIVE thanks to Warren from Chuff Media for sorting out this review for me.

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#Review: Big Wild – Superdream 🏜

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Big Wild is the moniker of American producer, composer and DJ, Jackson Stell. Having been producing music since he was just 14 years old, it wasn’t until 2012 that he began producing music under the name Big Wild. It was in 2015 that the electronic music duo, ODESZA, asked him to support them on a couple of dates of their tour, having discovered him on SoundCloud. Now, 2019 sees the release of his debut album, Superdream. Here’s what we have to say about it…

Big Wild - Superdream.jpg

From the very beginning, Superdream is an album the doesn’t let up for a minute and has some of the most intricately crafted and beautifully delicate production, I’ve ever heard on a record.

‘City Of Sound’ launches straight in, with a funky, disco-like quality and big vocal harmonies that are very reminiscent of Foster The People‘s ‘Pumped Up Kicks’. From there, we’re almost immediately led into single, ‘Joypunks’ – a bouncy, uplifting instrumental track which uses broken-up vocal sounds to create a really unique-sounding, nonsensical hook which you can’t help but try to sing along with.

I could go on because there is just so much to love about this album, however there are four tracks that really stand out above the rest:

‘6’s To 9’s’ is a huge track; the production is truly top-notch – there are these wonderfully understated verse vocals, married with high-pitched harmonies that build from a calm intro and verse into a gargantuan chorus, with sensational, gospel-like elements – it’s a truly epic track with a stunning performance from Rationale. There’s something almost sensual about the song.

‘No Words’ has some serious St Lucia qualities to it, with a big, gang-vocal chorus and some natural, night sounds during the breakdown.

The whole record feels as though there are religious undertones throughout; maybe it’s just because it sets such a high standard for the genre?!

‘Alley-Oop’s infectious beat courses right through you, giving off some reggae-like vibes and features vocals from iDA HAWK. The chorus is huge, which a big instrumental push behind the “Oop” to really emphasise it. There’s something a little Paloma Faith about the vocal, in places.

The last of the four biggest tracks has to be ‘Purple Sand (My Home)’, a song with broken-up pan flute/whistle sounds riding throughout, giving it a real organic feel and tropical flavours. It’s a very reflective song, looking back to a place you miss and long to be.

There’s lots of other things to love about Superdream too – ‘Pale Blue Dot’ is a bizarrely captivating instrumental that weaves together a gritty bass line, retro, horror organ notes and a chopped-up accordion-like sound. ‘Maker’ is truly ethereal and sounds like a modern-day ABBA track, with the vocal melodies and some of the instrumentals. ‘Heaven’ features a big drop and is pretty club-like but with more depth and diversity than most modern club tunes – it’s very refreshing.

The album draws to a close with ‘Awaken’, another instrumental that has large, spacious moments to it and a modern, religious-like style to the big moments. In fact the whole record feels as though there are religious undertones throughout; maybe it’s just because it sets such a high standard for the genre?!

Some of the best things about Big Wild‘s production are the way he takes ordinary sounds and distorts them, to the point they’re almost unrecognisable, yet become instantly captivating. It’s also quite evident that he loves big bass booms to really hit the listener, but they’re used just the right amount, making for a massive impact!

This is already a contender for album-of-the-year, within the genre, and 2019’s only just begun! Big Wild has set the bar high for himself with this truly electrifying debut and this is surely set to catapult his career to new heights. I just can’t wait to see what he puts out next and watch as he continues to grow and evolve. Superdream is super sensational!

Rating
4-5

‘Superdream’ is out now and can be downloaded from iTunes – https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/superdream/1438818174

Superdream on Spotify

Superdream (Audio Video Playlist)

We hope you’ve enjoyed our review! What do you think of this producer’s debut album? Are you as much of a fan as us? What would you rate it out of 5? Please leave your thoughts in a comment or via our social media.

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#Review: Sigala – Brighter Days 🌴

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Sigala (aka Bruce Fielder) is an English DJ, producer and remixer from Norwich in Norfolk. His first single, ‘Easy Love‘ (which featured a re-recorded interpolation of The Jackson 5 song, ‘ABC’) reached Number 1 in the UK Charts. In total, he has released a rather impressive, 12 singles, 6 of which have reached the Top 10 in the UK Charts. Now, with 10 of these singles featuring on his debut album, it’s easy to see why there is a lot of excitement about this release and indicates just how strong of an album it is. Here’s what we have to say about it…

Sigala - Brighter Days

To say that this album is star-studded is an understatement – it is utterly packed to bursting-point with incredible collaborations and downright epic tunes! Very rarely do you find that an album is filled, from start to finish, with singles but truly, every song on this record could be a single in its own right…and most of them have been!

With ten of the sixteen tracks having been released as singles, you could not be forgiven for not having heard at least one of these tracks before now! ‘Easy Love‘, ‘Sweet Lovin’‘ featuring Bryn Christopher, ‘Say You Do‘ featuring Imani Williams & DJ Fresh, ‘Give Me Your Love‘ featuring John Newman & Nile Rodgers, ‘Came Here For Love’ featuring Ella Eyre and ‘Lullaby’ featuring Paloma Faith all reached inside the UK’s Top 10. They’re all uplifting, summery songs which are filled with feel-good vibes. (For more about these tracks, hit the links above – as a massive fan of them and having reviewed them before, there’s so much else to focus on with this record!)

It’s easy to see why Sigala is such a big hitter – he’s created an instantly recognisable sound by combining dance music with tropical house and topping it off with some sensational pop collaborations, meaning his tracks just rocket up the charts…and the unreleased tracks on Brighter Days continue this trend. To make it clear just how many collaborations are on this record, here are a list of all the features:

Paul Janeway (of St. Paul & The Broken Bones), Ella Eyre, Fuse ODG, Sean Paul, Kent Jones, Meghan Trainor, French Montana, The Vamps, Flo Rida, Shaun Frank, Delaney Jane, HRVY, Nina Nesbitt, Paloma Faith, Craig David, Kylie Minogue, Bryn Christopher, Cheat Codes, MAX, John Newman, Nile Rodgers, Kodaline, Imani Williams and DJ Fresh.

With a lineup like that, it’s no surprise that this guy’s tunes are so damn good! Not only has he been dominating the UK dance music scene but with a whole host of international collaborations, he’s surely going to become a global hit!

The summer may well be drawing to a close but with this album, it feels like it’s just getting started; it’s the ultimate feel-good album that you just want to keep on repeat!

Aside from the obvious singles, this album features a few unheard tracks, starting with ‘Brighter Days’. With vocals from Paul Janeway (of St. Paul & The Broken Bones), you are eased into the album with a spacious verse that continually builds before unleashing a massive drop into the chorus…and the album doesn’t let up from there!

‘You Don’t Know Me’ is a huge track with shimmering synths and a monster beat (in collaboration with Shaun Frank) and some wonderful vocal lines from Flo Rida and Delaney Jane whilst ‘Somebody’ has some big, gang vocals in the lead-up to the chorus and great vocal harmonies shared between HRVY and Nina Nesbitt.

One of the biggest tracks on the album (and probably the most surprising that it’s not been a single) is ‘What You Waiting For’ featuring none other than pop princess Kylie Minogue! Think ‘Put Your Hands Up (If You Feel Love)’ but mellowed into a tropical house anthem with an ever-evolving beat – it’s musical euphoria at its best.

‘Revival’ sees Fielder collaborate with American production trio, Cheat Codes with the addition of wonderful falsetto and full-on vocals provided by US artist, MAX, supported by a crowd. The beat is intense; something you can easily find yourself getting lost in. Lastly, is ‘All For Love’ which features Irish rock band, Kodaline. The song is somewhat reminiscent of The Chainsmokers‘ track, ‘Something Just Like This‘ featuring Coldplay and the vocals have a certain quality to that of Danny O’Donoghue from Irish band, The Script. This really is testament to just how diverse Fielder’s production is and illustrates his superb songwriting skills too.

The only negative of the album is that because so many of the songs have already been released as singles, there’s only six tracks which haven’t been heard before (hence focusing this review mainly on them) but honestly this is an awesome record – the way the track list flows is perfect and ending it with ‘Easy Love’ is pure brilliance!

The summer may well be drawing to a close but with this album, it feels like it’s just getting started. It’s the ultimate feel-good album that you just want to keep on repeat – whether you’re out driving in the car, home alone and looking for a pick-me-up, having a few friends round for a BBQ or going all-out with a party; this is an hour-long, back-to-back, 16-track, banger of an album, that you simply can’t get enough of! Turn it up loud, play it proud and dance like fucking crazy! A sensational debut by a superb producer…and it’s surely only going to get more exciting from here…

Rating
5

‘Brighter Days’ is out now and can be downloaded from iTunes – https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/brighter-days/1397962305

Brighter Days on Spotify

Brighter Days (Official Video Playlist)

We hope you’ve enjoyed our review! What do you think of this epic producer’s debut album, Brighter Days? Are you as much of a fan as us? What would you rate it out of 5? Please leave your thoughts in a comment or via our social media.

Enjoyed this? Check out some of our other reviews here:

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#MellowMonday: Muzik Speaks’ 1st Birthday Playlist

Here’s a playlist of all the #MellowMonday songs we’ve featured during our first year…enjoy!

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This week, Muzik Speaks turns 1 year old and to celebrate, we’re giving you a themed playlist, for each day this week. The playlist will contain all of the songs we’ve featured on our blog during the past year, all themed around the corresponding day.

Today, it’s #MellowMonday and our playlist includes:

  1. Chris Malinchak – So Good To Me
  2. Coldplay – Magic
  3. OneRepublic – Can’t Stop
  4. Foster The People – Pumped Up Kicks
  5. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – Same Love
  6. Miley Cyrus – Adore You
  7. You+Me – Unbeliever
  8. The Barr Brothers – Even The Darkness Has Arms
  9. ODESZA – All We Need featuring Shy Girls
  10. Passenger – David
  11. Lucy Rose – Our Eyes
  12. Shura – 2Shy
  13. Jesse Boykins III – Plain
  14. Grimes – Entropy
  15. Sigma – Changing featuring Paloma Faith (GoldSmyth Edition)
  16. The Pierces – I’ll Be Dreaming
  17. Janet Jackson – No Sleeep
  18. Chris Brown – Liquor
  19. Randy Newman – You’ve Got A Friend In Me
  20. Lana Del Rey – Once Upon A Dream
  21. Vindata – All I Really Need
  22. Sam Feldt – Show Me Love featuring Kimberly Anne
  23. Lost Frequencies – Are You With Me
  24. Etta James – At Last
  25. Hayley Kiyoko – Girls Like Girls
  26. Justin Bieber – What Do You Mean?
  27. Timeflies – Stuck With Me
  28. Ryan Adams – Bad Blood
  29. Chicane – Ibiza Strings
  30. The Japanese House – Cool Blue
  31. The Fray – How To Save A Life
  32. Years & Years – Eyes Shut
  33. Celtic Woman – The Voice
  34. Ella Eyre – We Don’t Have To Take Our Clothes Off
  35. Cher – You Take It All
  36. Said The Sky – Nostalgia featuring Missio
  37. Will Young – What The World Needs Now Is Love
  38. Hearts & Colors – Fireflies
  39. Alex Parks – Get Out
  40. Snakehips – All My Friends featuring Tinashe & Chance The Rapper
  41. Maroon 5 – Animals (Gryffin Remix)
  42. Yuna – Tourist
  43. Sia – Breathe Me
  44. Timbaland – Don’t Get No Betta featuring Mila J
  45. Shura – Touch featuring Talib Kweli
  46. Lisa Goe – Still In Love

If you want to download the songs and use a custom cover for them, here’s one we’ve made for you 🙂

SONY DSC

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Follow the playlist – https://open.spotify.com/user/muzik5peaks/playlist/5n77gdqWl0MDJ87zxNLxcz

#Two4Tunesday: Sigma – ‘Glitterball’ featuring Ella Henderson & Conrad Sewell – ‘Hold Me Up’

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Today we’re bringing you a brand new track from Sigma featuring Ella Henderson (see our previous post about the remix of their previous song, ‘Changing‘, featuring Paloma Faith) and a great summery song from Conrad Sewell.

Sigma Banner

Sigma are going from one featured celebrity vocalist to the next, creating their own path of smash hits and leaving some massive songs in their wake!

The duo consists of Cameron Edwards and Joe Lenzie, who have so far worked with the likes of Labrinth, Paloma Faith and DJ Fresh and this next release of theirs features vocals of the incredibly talented, ex-X Factor contestant, Ella Henderson.

‘Glitterball’ is such a big-production song with its almost movie-like strings alongside chaotic drum and bass beats, a gospel choir and Ella Henderson‘s fantastic vocals. I’m predicting that it’s going to be a huge hit for them; a new landmark song for Sigma.

‘Glitterball’ is due for release on 24th July 2015 and you can pre-order it now on iTunes – https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/glitterball-feat.-ella-henderson/id997398173

Sigma – ‘Glitterball’ featuring Ella Henderson

Conrad Sewell Banner

Conrad Sewell recently gained recognition for lending his vocals to Kygo‘s hit song, ‘Firestone’ but he’s also released his own solo song, ‘Hold Me Up’.

The Australian-born singer moved to America to work on his solo project and has worked on a bunch of hit-makers, penning this one with Brian Lee (who’s worked with Lady Gaga and Icona Pop), The Euroz and Lewis Bell. He’s also embarking on the Ed Sheeran tour around Australia.

At the moment, ‘Hold Me Up’ has a tentative release date of 24th July 2015, however no pre-order has been made available yet. When it was released in Australia, the song peaked at 39 in the charts, however I reckon it’ll score a Top 20 in the UK charts, with the right promotion. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this song.

Conrad Sewell – ‘Hold Me Up’

And there ends this week’s #Two4Tunesday! Enjoy them as these are two really great songs! Please don’t forget to share away to your heart’s content across your social media accounts.

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#Playlist: June 2015

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Buenos Dias ‘Speakerz’!

Yes, it’s that time again; June’s monthly playlist has arrived! We’re bringing you the whole month’s featured songs all in one playlist; both on YouTube and Spotify!

In the month that brought you the passing of same-sex marriage across the whole of America (#LoveWins), we’ve brought you some huge tunes!

Muzik Speaks Logo - Pride

Muzik Speaks has just completed its 4th month and it’s popularity is still growing, so thank you to each and every one of our viewers and followers!

This month, we’ve mellowed your Monday’s with Jesse Boykins III, Grimes and Sigma, brought you new music from Owl City, Alesha Dixon, Years & Years and Blonde and introduced some new and unusual tracks from SBTRKT, Jack Ü, Only Real and The Notionaries.

We really hope that you enjoy the month’s songs, all taken from our featured posts throughout June 2015 – As usual, our apologies if some of the tracks are missing from the Spotify playlist – some may not have been released yet and some may have been removed from Spotify by the artist/band.

Note: You can view the whole YouTube playlist by using the dropdown menu at the top corner of the video, or skip a song using the ‘next’ button.

NEXT MONTH:

Next month, you can look forward to our interview with Frankmusik (4th July 2015 @ 6pm) and many more epic tunes!

OUR AIM

We’d like to ask you, to go ahead and ‘like’ our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/muzikspeaks) and ‘follow’ us on Twitter (www.twitter.com/muzik_speaks). Then if you could please post a status or send a tweet to your followers and friends to ask them to check us out, we’d be really grateful! We want to grow this community and we honestly can’t do it without your support!

Lastly, please please feel free to respond to our posts on Facebook or leave comments on each of our blog posts with your own tracks for each of the daily themes – we want to hear what you’re listening to because we love music as much as you, and we really enjoy finding out about new tunes. Thanks so much.

Matt – Muzik Speaks
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#MellowMonday: Sigma – ‘Changing (GoldSmyth Edition)’ featuring Paloma Faith

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Sigma Banner

Released back in September 2014, Sigma released the follow-up to their smash hit, ‘Nobody To Love’, teaming up with the incredibly talented Paloma Faith.

However, the original track is very dance-filled and whilst it’s a great song, is not my actual choice for today’s #MellowMonday track. My actual choice is the GoldSmyth Edition remix of the song! I came across this incredible version on the recently released Laidback Beats 2015 compilation and can’t get enough of it!

It’s rare to hear remixes of songs with such a strong Jazz/Funk/Soul vibe; usually remixes are very EDM or House influenced and this brings about a welcome difference to the norm. It sounds almost as if they’ve recruited a whole jazz band to redo the song…it’s remarkable!

I’ve since been checking out more of GoldSmyth’s work (https://soundcloud.com/goldsmythmusic) and can’t wait to see what else is produced!

Matt – Muzik Speaks
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‘Changing (GoldSmyth Edition)’ can be downloaded from iTunes right now – https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/changing-feat.-paloma-faith/id916176316?i=916176334