Search - Marianne Faithfull :: 20th Century Masters: Millennium Collection

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Pieter | Johannesburg | 06/23/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This skimpy collection completely ignores Faithfull's career up to the groundbreaking 1979 album Broken English. The songs are drawn from that album (the title track, Ballad Of Lucy Jordan and Working Class Hero) and from subsequent albums of the next two decades like Dangerous Acquaintances, A Child's Adventure, Strange Weather and A Secret Life.



The music is brilliant, especially Lucy Jordan (a minor hit in 1979), the later versions of Sister Morphine and As Tears Go By plus her rendition of Lennon's Working Class Hero and Patti Smith's ghost dance, but they represent only a tiny fraction of her memorable catalogue. Major omissions that are highlights of her career include Why'd Ya Do It? (The Heathcote Williams poem), Sweetheart, Intrigue, For Beauty's Sake, Sign Of Judgment and Times Square.



For her sixties output, I recommend either The Very Best of Marianne Faithfull or Greatest Hits. For the second phase of her career, I recommend Perfect Stranger: The Island Anthology, a comprehensive 2-disc set. Faithless (1978) is a great collection of country songs from Marianne's lost years and Vagabond Ways from 1999 is a splendid recent solo album, one of her best."