Rating:
* *
It seems Faithfull's peculiar magnetism is as strong as ever. With almost all of her previous three albums of the past decade collaboration-heavy affairs, here she's extended the guest list so much she's emerged with an 18-track double album that includes appearances by Nick Cave, Rufus Wainwright, Keith Richards, Anthony Hegarty, Sean Lennon, Jarvis Cocker, Chan Marshall and Teddy Thompson.
Song-wise, she and producer Hal Wilner- who helmed her 1987 covers-heavy
Strange Weather
- have constructed a very assorted set of songs. The combination of both lists brings a very mixed result.
Faithfull's voice still has plenty of creaky character but it sure isn't a good fit for the likes of Smokey Robinson's
Ooh Baby Baby, Somewhere (A Place for Us)
from
West Side Story
, or Duke Ellington's
Solitude
.
Still, she manages to find another layer of misery in Morrissey's
Dear God Please Help Me
and Merle Haggard's
Sing Me Back Home
.
Possibly would have been better as a single disc, but as it is, this comes on too much like a
Young@Heart
solo album for comfort.
Russell Baillie
The host has been spotted across the Atlantic post-election.