20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Marianne Faithfull

With 1979’s Broken English, Marianne Faithfull reestablished her career as a tough, world-wise singer who no longer took any crap. Her terse, spiky delivery made songs such as John Lennon’s “Working Class Hero” sound even closer to the existential bone. Shel Silverstein’s “The Ballad of Lucy Jordan” reflects the mid-life crisis Faithfull easily could have lasped into, but instead her artistic instincts led her to several key collaborations that helped redefine her as a serious artist for the ensuing decades. “Trouble In Mind (The Return)” haunts with a barroom’s despair, while the Tom Waits-Kathleen Brennan track “Strange Weather,” produced by the highly esteemed producer Hal Willner, recast Faithfull yet again as a sophisticated blues chanteuse. Key re-recordings of her classic “Sister Morphine” and “As Tears Go By,” a cover of Patti Smith’s “Ghost Dance,” and a dance mix of “The Blue Millionaire” further expose Faithfull’s wide experimental and challenging efforts. While her earliest works once supposed a shy wallflower being dragged to the center stage, the later works reveal a woman who deserves to stand tall amongst her trials.