The album has a dark and fatalistic mood, which Faithfull attributes partially to the post-9/11 world.
Faithfull enlisted musicians PJ Harvey and Nick Cave, as well as Damon Albarn and producer Jon Brion.
Before the Poison is poetic and unnerving; it stands alone in her catalog in the same way that Broken English did – but this time, on the other side of the mirror.
This special performance is the culmination of a yearlong tour by Marianne Faithfull and pianist/ arranger Paul Trueblood. The breathy, frail, and innocent voice of the '60s, wilted by too many years of hard living, now conveys deep layers of emotion, and the rasp of her voice goes straight to the soul. This concert revisits her album 20th Century Blues and her passion for Kurt Weill, especially the songs composer for his theater collaborations with Bertolt Brecht (among them 'Alabama Song,' 'Pirate Jenny,' 'The Ballad of the Soldier's Wife,' and 'Surabaya Johnny').
The Very Best of Marianne Faithfull' is a particularly strong collection of Marianne's earliest recordings made for Decca between 1964 to 1968. This album contains every one of her singles which made the charts both in Britain and America during those fruitful four years.
This special performance is the culmination of a yearlong tour by Marianne Faithfull and pianist/ arranger Paul Trueblood. The breathy, frail, and innocent voice of the '60s, wilted by too many years of hard living, now conveys deep layers of emotion, and the rasp of her voice goes straight to the soul. This concert revisits her album 20th Century Blues and her passion for Kurt Weill, especially the songs composer for his theater collaborations with Bertolt Brecht (among them 'Alabama Song,' 'Pirate Jenny,' 'The Ballad of the Soldier's Wife,' and 'Surabaya Johnny').
There is no shortage of Marianne Faithfull collections, but the compact, digitally remastered, 11-track 20th Century Masters set comes close to being the best document of her post-comeback period, which began with 1979's Broken English. That addictively eccentric album is well-represented here with the title track, Shel Silverstein's "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan," and John Lennon's "Working Class Hero" making up the three leadoff tracks. Faithfull's '80s versions of "Sister Morphine" (which she co-wrote with the Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger and Keith Richards) and "As Tears Go By" are also here, along with her exotic cover of Patti Smith's "Ghost Dance" and the anti-ballad "So Sad."