Marianne Faithfull

As Mick Jagger's late-'60s squeeze, Marianne Faithfull played the archetypal Brit-rock-star girlfriend: pale, blond, regal, hip. And this daughter of an Austrian noble could sing -- notably, at 18, Jagger-Richard's lovely "As Tears Go By." A few other hits followed, but by 1966, she was finished as a soft-voiced popster. Greatest Hits chronicles this period; Faithless is a reissue of her '70s pop -- her voice is strong, the material is not.

By the dawn of the '80s, experience -- in the stark form of heartbreak, drug busts, press notoriety, and suicide attempts -- had made Marianne Faithfull an artist. As a demimonde chanteuse, Faithfull is indisputably the real thing: wised-up, courageous, bullshit-free. Broken English, with a song about cocksucking and a dramatic reading of Lennon's "Working Class Hero," was her startling adult entrance, unleashing a Gauloises-rich voice and a fierce intelligence. Dangerous Acquaintances insinuated its power more softly; its Steve Winwood collaboration, "For Beauty's Sake," took a wary look at obsession. A Child's Adventure found her in stronger but still uningratiating voice; while a fine record, especially for the wounded strength of "Falling From Grace," it just missed the cracked accomplishment of her mature debut. With Strange Weather, Faithfull darkly covered work by Dylan, Lead Belly, and Jerome Kern. And in Blazing Away, she commemorates her life lessons; a sharp live album, it serves as a loose best-of. Of the two official best-ofs, Faithfull is the tighter and stronger.

Faithfull kept things interesting in the '90s. A Secret Life teamed her with composer Angelo Bada-lamenti, best known for his film scores for David Lynch's eccentric flicks. The collaboration is a kind of moodiness fest, dark on dark, blue on blue. The live 20th Century Blues is Marianne doing Kurt Weill to a stark piano and acoustic-bass accompaniment -- haunting stuff, as are the album's other songs, by Harry Nilsson and No‘l Coward. The Vienna Radio Symphony backs her up on another live rendering of Weill gems, The Seven Deadly Sins; again, the effect is unsettling, smart, hypnotic. With Vagabond Ways, Faithfull returns to original material, cowriting with Daniel Lanois, among others; the voice has retained its haggard beauty. (PAUL EVANS)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide