Sorry if you think our love was automatic.
[Video][Website]
[6.14]
Pete Baran: Armor On is probably my favourite album (EP, whatever) of the year, and while “Bombs” is clearly the standout dance floor filler, Faith has been the track that has meant that I feel I have to listen to the entire album (EP, whatever) in sequential order. It’s the gleeful release of the darkness of much of the album and works perfectly in that context. Once it goes, there is nothing better to stomp around to. An EP track, really.
[8]
Katherine St Asaph: Dawn’s got her Riharmor on, more like, because this is practically a mashup. In order: “Take Care,” “Where Have You Been,” “We Found Love” (the bridge), and I guess you could probably count “have your way” and the synth riff toward the end on technicalities. She’s still an adept performer, but this isn’t exactly her best repertoire.
[6]
Anthony Easton: Flawless, with a icy vocal and a run-up that might as well be a Concorde going form London to New York when supersonic travel was still chic.
[8]
Iain Mew: Continues the process of shortening “I’ll Take Care of You” to “I’ll Take Care of U” to “Take Care” by removing the title and half the loop completely. That part still dominates, to the detriment of the rest of the song. The sped-up breakdown brings more unwelcome familiarity.
[3]
Alfred Soto: Two successive singles, killers both, proved fulsome displays of Dawn Richard’s cybernetic dance & blues. Maybe this time she thought she’d have a shot at Drake-level dough with a keyboard echoing the sample in “Take Care” and a chorus whose underwritten sentiments goddamn Rihanna would have inhabited.
[4]
Will Adams: I’m still waiting for the moment when Dawn Richard excites me as much as she did on “Black Lipstick.” “Faith” comes close, its ample percussion flooding the landscape but never upstaging the main star. The trance coda needed more time to tie up the loose ends, but Dawn’s firm grasp on dynamics helps ease that trouble.
[6]
Alex Ostroff: Strangely enough, the song from Armor On that has the most in common with the dance-leaning radio fare that has overtaken the R&B singles charts is the song that loses the most when separated from the rest of the EP. ‘Faith’ is still a masterclass in build-and-release, but as three minutes and change it’s less effective than it was as a climax to the first nineteen minutes of a continuously-mixed record.
[8]