Celeste Woman Of Faces
Celeste's Woman Of Faces arrives as a cinematic, theatrical statement that consolidates heartbreak, recovery and self-discovery into a glacially paced yet emotionally potent collection. Across five professional reviews the record earned an 82/100 consensus score, and critics consistently point to sweeping orchestration and Celeste's haunting, dusky voice as the album's central strengths. On With The Show, Time Will Tell and This Is Who I Am recur as standout tracks, with reviewers naming them among the best songs on Woman Of Faces for their dramatic builds and cathartic payoffs.
Critics' Top Tracks
The standout songs that made critics take notice
Time Will Tell
4 mentions
"the likes of ‘Time Will Tell’ and ‘This Is Who I Am’ emerging from the shadows as triumphant glimpses of light"— DIY Magazine
Woman Of Faces
3 mentions
"the keys and strings of the title track are particularly standout"— The Skinny
On With The Show
5 mentions
"Where the opener ‘On With The Show’ is a decadent build of a track"— DIY Magazine
the likes of ‘Time Will Tell’ and ‘This Is Who I Am’ emerging from the shadows as triumphant glimpses of light
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
On With The Show
Keep Smiling
Woman Of Faces
Happening Again
Time Will Tell
People Always Change
Sometimes
Could Be Machine
This Is Who I Am
What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 5 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
Celeste’s Woman of Faces feels like a theatrical unfolding, its best songs revealing themselves across repeat listens. The reviewer singles out Time Will Tell and This Is Who I Am as must-hear moments, while the title track’s strings and keys stand particularly standout. There is risk-taking here - tracks such as Could Be Machine and the deluxe-only Carmen’s Song push the album beyond mere repetition. Overall, the album cements Celeste’s emotive, haunting voice and rewards attentive listening.
Key Points
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Time Will Tell is highlighted as the top recommended listen and a rewarding repeat-listen.
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The album’s strengths are Celeste’s haunting, emotive vocals, theatrical arrangements and occasional bold experimentation.
Themes
Critic's Take
Celeste's Woman Of Faces is somber and glacial yet often sumptuous, and the best songs - notably Keep Smiling and People Always Change - stop you dead in your tracks. The album favours slow, orchestrated arrangements that let Celeste's phrasing and fragile-to-powerful voice do the work, making tracks like On With The Show and Time Will Tell stand out for their emotional weight. While the near-uniform pacing makes the record challenging to consume in one sitting, the individual songs reward close listening and mark the best tracks on Woman Of Faces as quietly devastating.
Key Points
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The best song(s) showcase Celeste’s vocal control and orchestral arrangements that stop the listener dead.
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The album’s core strengths are sumptuous orchestration, vocal nuance, and a cohesive song-cycle exploring heartbreak and social pressures.
Themes
Critic's Take
Celeste makes Woman Of Faces feel like a mini Bond soundtrack, smoky and cinematic, and the best songs are those that marry that grandeur to plainspoken feeling - opener On With The Show and closer This Is Who I Am stand out. The record trades hooky pop for lush arrangements and theatrical drama, so the best tracks on Woman Of Faces are the ones that let her dusky, direct voice do the heavy lifting. Oddball moments like Could Be Machine surprise, but it is the sweeping, Bassey-tinged finish that cements Celeste's emotional authority. Overall, these best tracks show why the album works as evening music for drawn curtains and empowered solitude.
Key Points
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The best song is "This Is Who I Am" because its Bassey-style, full-bodied declaration gives the album its emotional climax.
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The album’s core strengths are cinematic arrangements, dusky direct vocals, and a cohesive breakup-and-solitude theme.
Themes
Critic's Take
In a voice that is intimate and unflinching, Celeste maps an arc on Woman Of Faces from fracture to reclamation, and the best songs prove the point. The cinematic opener On With The Show immediately foregrounds her raspy, recognisable voice and stakes its claim as one of the album's best tracks. The title track Woman Of Faces is the record's beating heart, interrogating identity with the same immediacy that made its Glastonbury performance resonate. Elsewhere, cathartic shifts like Could Be Machine and the quietly gut-wrenching Time Will Tell show why these are the songs listeners ask about when searching for the best tracks on Woman Of Faces.
Key Points
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The title track is the album's emotional centre, combining cinematic immediacy with questions of identity.
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The album's strengths lie in its intimate storytelling, cinematic production, and a throughline of survival and reclamation.
Themes
Critic's Take
Celeste unfolds a dramatic, cinematic second album with Woman Of Faces, and the best songs here - notably On With The Show, Time Will Tell and This Is Who I Am - are where her voice and the sweeping strings meet in full bloom. Jamieson writes with breathless admiration, tracing how the opener On With The Show is a "decadent build" that sets the stage, while the likes of Time Will Tell and This Is Who I Am surface as "triumphant glimpses of light". The result is an album born from rupture that still insists on grandeur, emotional clarity and moments of real catharsis.
Key Points
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The best song is the opener, On With The Show, because its decadent, cinematic build sets the album's emotional and musical tone.
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The album's core strengths are Celeste's soaring vocal lines and rich, orchestral arrangements that turn personal rupture into cathartic grandeur.