This year celebrating the 50th anniversary of her recording career, with Give My Love To London, Marianne Faithfull continues the creative renaissance that commenced with 2002’s magnificent Kissin’ Time, a brilliantly eclectic offering boasting memorable collaborations with Beck, Billy Corgan, Blur and Pulp.
Faithfull has again assembled a formidable team for this album, with producers Rob Ellis and Flood at the mixing desk, band members culled from Portishead and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and songwriting contributions from the likes of the aforementioned Cave, Anna Calvi, Roger Waters and Steve Earle. The net result is an album of hugely impressive, baroque chamber-pop.
The upbeat title track is a folky number with echoes of Arcade Fire. Further highlights include the Roger Waters-penned ‘Sparrows Will Sing’, a beguiling piece of art-rock with some delightful choral vocals, the moody piano ballad ‘Late Victorian Holocaust’ and the delicate acoustic track ‘Love More Or Less’. Faithfull also kicks out the jams on the old school rock ‘n’ roll number ‘The Price Of Love’, and gets contemplative on the atmospheric ‘Falling Back’, co-written with Anna Calvi.
Lyrically, the album explores the urban bohemian milieu that Faithfull is so familiar with, and her smoky, husky vocals have a similar gravitas to Leonard Cohen. A very fine album.
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