If 'anger is an energy' (according to John Lydon in the PiL song 'Rise'), then rarely has a spleen been more elegantly vented than on Marianne Faithfull's Broken English album [Universal, see p76], a howling rage of a record tempered by beautifully subtle production and understated musical settings. After a successful career as a mid-'60s folk-pop singer (and then as an altogether less innocent symbol of Swinging London decadence), Faithfull had fallen into personal despair as the decade's glamour gave way to the comedown of the '70s, and she spent much of her time living rough in Soho at the mercy of a destructive heroin habit. Despite releasing a couple of country-tinged albums which did well in Ireland, Faithfull had struggled to relocate her muse as drugs and alcohol took their toll. But then punk came along, offering Faithfull a timely milieu in which to express her explosion of emotions.
展开▼
