Before The Poison
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Before the Poison | ||
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| Studio album by Marianne Faithfull | ||
| Released | January 25, 2005 | |
| Recorded | The Fallout Shelter and Mayfair Studio, London; June-October, 2003 | |
| Genre | Rock | |
| Label | Anti Records/Naïve | |
| Professional reviews | ||
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| Marianne Faithfull chronology | ||
| Kissin' Time (2003) |
Before The Poison (2005) |
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Before the Poison is the twentieth studio album by Marianne Faithfull, recorded in 2003 and released in 2005. With its dark and fatalistic mood, which Faithfull attributes partially to the post-9/11 world, it's considered by some critics and fans her best work since 1979's Broken English.
To help her out on making the album, Faithfull contacted names like PJ Harvey, Nick Cave and Damon Albarn. Besides producing and performing on five tracks, Harvey gave her three songs ("The Mystery of Love", "My Friends Have" and "No Child Of Mine" -- an excerpt of the last one appears on PJ's latest album, Uh Huh Her) and co-wrote another two with Faithfull. Cave co-produces with Hal Willner the three tracks on which he wrote the music over Marianne's lyrics ("Crazy Love", "There Is a Ghost" and "Desperanto") and had his supporting band, The Bad Seeds, performing on all of them. Albarn, who appears with Blur in a song on Faithfull's previous album, Kissin' Time, co-wrote "Last Song" with her. The producer Jon Brion, also featured on Kissin' Time, shares with the singer the songwriting credits of "City of Quartz", the last song of the album.
A curiosity is that two of the album's collaborators, PJ Harvey and Nick Cave, had an affair in late 1990s and don't speak with each other since the break-up. But Marianne assured in an February 2005 interview to Mojo Magazine that "They didn’t need to speak to each other. They were with me. One is one thing and one is the other and I am the connection. With Polly I was in the studio for around 10 days and then later on I was in the studio for about five days with Nick and the Bad Seeds. Nick didn’t even hear the Polly stuff - I gave it to him but I don’t think he listened, The only area that was difficult was that they didn’t want to be seen in competition with each other."
Before The Poison reached position #37 at Billboard Top Independent Albums in 2005.
[edit] Track listing
- 'The Mystery Of Love' (PJ Harvey) – 3:53
- 'My Friends Have' (PJ Harvey) – 2:48
- 'Crazy Love' (Marianne Faithfull/Nick Cave) – 4:04
- 'Last Song' (Damon Albarn/Marianne Faithfull) – 3:19
- 'No Child Of Mine' (PJ Harvey) – 6:15
- 'Before the Poison' (Marianne Faithfull/PJ Harvey) – 4:10
- 'There Is A Ghost' (Marianne Faithfull/Nick Cave) – 4:32
- 'In The Factory' (Marianne Faithfull/PJ Harvey) – 3:51
- 'Desperanto' (Marianne Faithfull/Nick Cave) – 4:22
- 'City of Quartz' (Marianne Faithfull/Jon Brion) – 4:04
[edit] Production credits
- Tracks 1, 2, 5, 6 & 8:
- Produced by PJ Harvey (June-July 2003)
- Recorded and mixed by Head
- Vocals and handclapping: Marianne Faithfull
- Electric and acoustic guitars, bass, synth, backing vocals, piano, slide bass: PJ Harvey
- Drums, piano, percussion, glockenspiel, handclapping: Rob Ellis
- Synth bass, electric guitar, bass: Adrian Utley
- Tracks 3, 7 & 9:
- Produced by Nick Cave and Hal Willner (October 2003)
- Recorded and mixed by Rik Simpson
- Vocals: Marianne Faithfull
- Musicians: Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Martyn P. Casey and Jim Sclavunos
- Tracks 4 & 10:
- Produced by Rob Ellis and Head (September 2003)
- Recorded and mixed by Head
- Assistant engineers: Andrew Rugg and Rik Simpson
- Vocals: Marianne Faithfull
- Drums, piano, percussion, vibraphone, sound effects, string arrangements: Rob Ellis
- Acoustic guitar, bass, toy piano, sampling: Adrian Utley
- Violin: Catherine Browning
- Cello: Andy Nice
- Piano: Diana Gutkind
- Mastering: John Dent
- Photos: Jean Baptiste Mondino
