"Only Love Can Hurt Like This" is a song by English singer Paloma Faith, written by Diane Warren. Released as the second single to promote her third studio album, A Perfect Contradiction, on 11 May 2014, it was promoted on shows such as . The song peaked at number 6 in the United Kingdom, making it Faith's highest charting single to date, surpassing her 2012 single "Picking Up the Pieces". It made its Australian chart premiere on 21 July 2014 after being used on a high-profile TV advertisement for Channel 7's drama seriesWinners & Losers. It reached the number one position on the AustralianARIA charts on 26 July. It has also peaked at number 3 on the New Zealand Singles Chart, marking Faith's first top ten and highest peaking single there to date.
Background and composition
"Only Love Can Hurt Like This" was written by Diane Warren, who has previously written songs for Whitney Houston, Cher, Toni Braxton, LeAnn Rimes, Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears. Initially, Faith refused to record the song because she hadn't any writing credit for it, however after hearing the song Faith felt overwhelmed by how the song reflected on her relationship and emotion at the time. Warren has also written a song with a synonymous title, "Nothing Hurts Like Love", sung by Daniel Bedingfield. The song "Only Love Can Hurt Like This" was premiered in a stripped back acoustic version on Amazon.com, and was later performed at a Burberry fashion show in February 2014; later this performance was made available on the iTunes Store. The song has been described as a Motown-influenced sixties-style ballad and is a largely acoustic song featuring mainly brass and drums, expanding to include backing vocals and heavy use of violins in the final choruses. The song also includes subtle piano accentuation. The iTunes album review for A Perfect Contradiction describes the song as: " towering, wall-of-sound ballad..." - a reference to the production formula developed by record producerPhil Spector. Unlike other songs produced by AC Burrell or Kyle Townsend, "Only Love Can Hurt Like This" is not tuned to the widely used concert pitch of Instead, it was recorded about 35 centssharp, about one-third of the way to the next semitone.
Follow-up material
has written for Faith twice again, towards the single "Leave While I'm Not Looking", and "The Crazy Ones".
Music video
The official music video for "Only Love Can Hurt Like This" was preceded by an '"Off the Cuff"' version, released on Faith's official Vevo account and was premiered on 31 March 2014. In this video, is shown just Paloma and her pianist performing the song alone in a room. This video was directed by Anthony Saul. On 25 April, Faith uploaded a teaser of the official music video on her official Instagram account, and informed that the video was set to release on 28 April. The song's official video has been credited to Denna Cartamkhoub and Paul Gore who also worked with Faith on her "Can't Rely on You"'s and Trouble with My Baby's music video. The video for this song was shot by Daniel Landin.
Uses in media
The track was used in the promotional video for the 2015 season of the New Zealand popular soap opera Shortland Street. Faith performed 'Only Love Can Hurt Like This' at the 2015 BRIT Awards which was held on 25 February 2015. An indoor rain system was activated to add emotive effect. After her performance, Faith commented: "I am drenched!" and "I just sang my song... in torrential rain!". Wayne McGregor's "Random Dancers" performed in the background.
