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Rating: Marianne Faithfull is a rock muse.
She is part of the history that has accompanied us to this day, having been a groupie and muse for the Stones, fled with them to France, and was a delicate jazzy vocalist towards the end of the seventies. But it was in the midst of the crazy nineties that she produced her masterpiece with the essential production of Angelo Badalamenti (creator, among other things, of the paranormal music for Twin Peaks): "A Secret Life".
An ambitious album (it begins with a citation from the first cantica of Dante's Comedy and concludes with some verses from Shakespeare) and with a rather gloomy atmosphere, alleviated by the airy orchestrations of the Italian composer. After the Dantean memory prologue, "Sleep" starts in which our heroine's voice duets at extremely high peaks of pathos with the synths, followed by the wonderful "Love in the Afternoon" entirely supported by a phantasmagoric pulsating bass and rich with emotional climaxes. The main references for this work seem to be dream-pop, particularly certain metaphysical depths dear to Dead Can Dance but stripped of their ethnic dimension, and a bit of post-rock-like sound expansions.
Despite the abundant use of classical instruments, Badalamenti's mastery always avoids making everything fall into prolixity. Indeed, it is perhaps the two more rock pieces, Bored by Dreams and The Wedding, that are the least convincing. The undisputed peak of this work is Flaming September, sinuous, dark, and sexy just like Faithfull's voice.
Thirty minutes and a little more for an album that is a masterpiece of wisdom and sensuality, absolutely worth rediscovering.
Tracklist and Lyrics
05 She (03:26)
She lives alone with no one
Who can see she's unhappy.
She knows what she lost,
Still she is waiting for more.
She could be living in hell
And not know someone loves her.
What can she do,
What is she waiting for ?
The day turns to night
He just can't find the right words to tell her
Twisting and turning and looking for
Something to say.
If you would let me hold you
I wouldn't walk away
That's what he wants,
That's what he wants to say.
What can she lose,
What is she waiting for ?
He knows when she cries
And he saw through the lies that she told him.
She's dreaming and planning
Of how she could ask him to stay.
If you would let me love you,
I wouldn't be the same.
Please can we try,
Please can we try again ?
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