She Walks in Beauty (with Warren Ellis)

Album review

Time is an enemy for most singers, but for Marianne Faithfull, it's truly been an asset. The purity of her voice in her early recordings in the 1960s was lovely but lacked gravity. When she re-emerged in the late '70s with the extraordinary album Broken English, her instrument was rougher and weathered by both maturity and tobacco, but it gave her performances a depth and authority that the sweeter version of herself lacked. Ever since then, Faithfull's vocals have continued to impress regardless of the condition of her voice; she has allowed experience to make itself known when she steps before a microphone, and it has made her art stronger and more eloquent. Faithfull doesn't sing on 2021's She Walks in Beauty, yet it's another shining example of how the passing of the years has favored her as a performer. She Walks in Beauty features Faithfull reading 11 of her favorite poems, with the focus on the English Romantics, among them John Keats, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and William Wordsworth. Her recitations are accompanied by ambient music composed and performed by Warren Ellis, with assistance from Brian Eno and Nick Cave, and while the instrumentals match the mood and the meter of Faithfull's performances quite beautifully, this is the sort of project that succeeds or fails on the abilities of the actor in the spotlight. On She Walks in Beauty, Faithfull more than rises to the occasion. Her experience as an actress serves her as well as her career as a singer, and her readings speak of a subtle but evident passion and a deep understanding and love of these verses. This is not the work of a celebrity dilettante, but a songwriter who knows a lot about the nexus between words and music, and she reveals a keen understanding of the rhythm of these poems, as well as knowing where to put the emphasis to bring out the emotions captured in the words. Faithfull's voice bears the textures of a life lived boldly, and the lessons life has taught her can be heard in the finished product; though a younger reader may have demonstrated the beauty of Byron's "So We’ll Go No More A Roving" or Shelley's "Ozymandias," her more mature delivery and tone more readily express the lessons learned in these works. She Walks in Beauty is a loving testimony to the power and lasting vigor of the Romantic poets, and also a reminder of how lucky we are to have an artist as gifted as Marianne Faithfull giving us this remarkable tutorial.

© Mark Deming /TiVo