Lianne La Havas - Paper Thin

Love yourself cos you can't love no-one else.

Album: Lianne La Havas [3rd album]
Recorded: New York, New York
Genre: Neo-Soul, Singer-Songwriter
Album Release: July 17th 2020
Single Release: May 4th 2020 [second single]
Length: 4.59
Producer: Johan Harryson, Homer Steinweiss & Lianne La Havas
Vocalist: Lianne La Havas [age 30]
Label: Warner Music Group & Nonesuch Records

Music Video


Live at Glastonbury 2022

Charts, Streams & Sales

Belgian (albums): #8
Dutch (albums): #9
UK (albums): #7
USA (albums): #26
Spotify: 39,000,000 +
YouTube Music: 3,600,000 +
Ivor Novello Award Winner 2021: Best Album
Brit Awards 2021 Nominee: British Female Solo Artist (losing to Dua Lipa)

Credits & Gear

Bass, drums, guitar, vocals

Details

• The song is a stripped back exercise in simplicity featuring softly spoken, heartfelt vocals over minimal instrumentation. The album is self titled and as such deeply personal. Lianne has put her name on it, the cover is a picture of her face and the songs represent her in a way she felt was missing from her previous work. Even though her second album 'Blood' reached #2 in the UK charts the singer was unhappy as she felt her personality didn't come through in the songs.
  
  The songwriting on the album is so earnest it risks becoming maudlin, however it suits a vulnerable type of soul music that leaves little to the imagination. It's Lianne La Havas laid bare, at her most vulnerable expressing her real feelings about her real heartbreak. It's a concept album that equates a relationship with the life cycle of a flower because they both have a natural ebb and flow.
  
  The vocals are one half of a lovers conversation. They're softly spoken and intimate. Liane is trying to reach her partner but it's of no use "you're not the only one that's suffering, that's enough, I know you're made of better stuff". The singer wants things to go well "you're heart is an open door so let me love you" but she would later describe the relationship as "toxic" and bad for her mental health.
  
  
• Lianne La Havas is a stage name. Her birth name is Lianne Barnes. La Havas is in honour of her dad who is Greek.
  
• She taught herself guitar by watching YouTube videos.
  
• The album charts the course of a relationship from start to finish.
  
• She started the song in 2016 but didn't finish it until recording the album.
  
  
• "At the beginning, you definitely want to do it, but you’re getting to know the other person a bit more and then you see what gives them pain for the first time. And that basically happened on FaceTime. There are certain types of people that tend to keep their pain to themselves and try to defuse it with something else, like humour." (discussing the song in an interview with The Guardian)
  
  
• "Having a craft that you can just do while you'e sitting is really good. I feel like I think a lot, so I always want to chill, but if I can chill while I'm getting things done, even better, that’s the tell." (talking to gal-dem.com)
  
  

Artwork