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Marianne Faithfull
Before The Poison
Naive/Shock

It's hard to believe that it is forty years since Marianne Faithfull embarked upon her singing career as a seventeen year old Reading convent girl, beginning what would become an infamous relationship with the Rolling Stones with Jagger and Richard's As Tears Go By. By 1970 her infamous liaison with his Satanic Majesty Jagger was over and it would be nearly another decade before she would successfully reinvent herself as punk virago with the now classic 'Broken English' (1979).

Since then she has proved herself to be perhaps the most sympathetic English language performer of Weill, as well as proving a more relevant musical interpreter than her famous ex. This position was solidified by 2002's 'Kissin' Time' which saw her successfully collaborate with the likes of Billy Corgan, Blur, Beck and Jarvis Cocker.

'Before The Poison' continues in the same vein with PJ Harvey, Nick Cave and Damon Albarn composing the dark, brooding songs that have become her speciality. The strongest are the grunge flavoured tracks written by Harvey - particularly The Mystery Of Love and My Friends Have featuring the loose guitar lines and backing vocals of PJ herself. Equally successful is the Albarn penned Last Song with its dark melodicism, tasteful strings and guitar from Portishead's Adrian Utley.

Whilst the tracks that Faithfull penned with Nick Cave seem like an appropriate collaboration, it is here that I have a minor caveat: Cave provides the musical accompaniment whilst leaving the lyrics to Lady Faithfull, yet Cave's strength - like that of his equally dark mentor Leonard Cohen - undoubtedly lies in his lyrical poeticism. Even so, the three tracks (Crazy Love, There Is A Ghost and Desperanto) are strong but do not reach the heights that Cave presents on his truly excellent new double album.

The closing City Of Quartz sees her collaborate with American composer Jon Brion to a rather Cagean soundtrack of clocks and music boxes.

Brett Allen-Bayes

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