THESE 18 Songs For Music Lovers are Faithfull versions rather than faithful versions of songs interpreted by the Sixties’ It-Girl.
Reuniting with producer Hal Willner, she seeks to tap once more into the magic he brought to her previous set of covers, Strange Weather in 1987. Marianne’s voice has weathered, and grown stranger with the passing of 22 winters, but where there’s a Willner, there’s a way to minimise the vocal limitations.
On the croaking surface, this dowager diva project brings to mind Johnny Cash’s American Recordings with producer Rick Rubin, but where Rubin stripped everything to the barest essentials, Willner invites A-list guests to the party: Rufus Wainwright, Jarvis Cocker, Nick Cave, Antony Hegarty, Cat Power and old Stone playmate Keith Richards (for a clash of the leather throats on Sing Me Back Home).
From Morrissey’s Dear God Please Help Me to Somewhere and The Decemberists’ The Crane Wife 3, the choices surprise more than the worn singing, often too arch by comparison with Cash’s late-period renaissance.
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