Amazon.co.uk Review
Often, attempts by more senior artists to make an album with a younger generation tend to fall a bit flat;
Marianne Faithfull's
Before the Poison is a shining exception. The success is due in no small part to PJ Harvey writing and producing half of the songs, with Nick Cave, Damon Albarn and composer Jon Brion making up the rest. Faithfull is by no means a great singer in the traditional sense but her voice has a distinct charm that takes on the personality within a song. For example, you can hear PJ Harvey in the lo-fi opener "The Mystery of Love" yet she doesn't sing a note; the same goes for Nick Cave and Damon Albarn.
For the most part, the PJ Harvey collaborations are gritty lo-fi guitar numbers and Nick Cave's are dark piano ballads--it's difficult to pick highlights as the quality is unwavering but the catchy chorus and rolling guitar hooks of "My Friends Have" and "No Child of Mine" are instantly memorable. The last two tracks differ greatly from the rest, both sounding like nothing else on the album. Nick Cave's "Desperanto" is a bizarre hybrid of guitar-based gangster funk, screaming rockabilly sax and a rabble shouting Jim Morrison lyrics, all topped off with a melody akin to Madonna's "Vogue"--it does sound as odd as the description but is a truly incredible piece of music. No less contemporary is "City of Quartz", a kind of Rogers and Hammerstein number voiced on a collection of clock chimes--again, incredible stuff. With absolutely no filler, Before the Poison is a truly great album that is quirky, cutting edge and ridiculously easy to listen to.--David Trueman
Description
Since 1979's BROKEN ENGLISH, when she began writing and performing original material in a moody, emotionally stark vein, Marianne Faithfull's image as a glamorous, '60s music-biz pop star has undergone serious revision. This album completes the transformation. Full of beautiful, honest songs and emotionally harrowing performances, BEFORE THE POISON is Faithfull at her most compelling and undeniable. Her husky, cracked voice, which has plenty of experience built into it, is applied to great effect here, with a world-weary edge that ispart artsong, part blues, and part alternative rock.
This last appellation is apt given the nature of Faithfull's collaborations. Nick Cave wrote three of the songs, including the desperately melancholic "There Is a Ghost", while composer/multi-instrumentalist Jon Brion and Blur's Damon Albarn (whose "Last Song" is one of the album's highlights) contribute a track each. But the strongest presence is PJ Harvey, who wrote the rest of the album, and also contributes guitar and backing vocals. Faithfull and Harvey make a great team, with the wisdom and texture of the former's voice fleshing out the latter's biting lyrics and icy angles. BEFORE THE POISON adds up to a poetic, deeply affecting experience, an album that weighs in as one of Faithfull's finest achievements yet.
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