{"id":41684,"date":"2009-09-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-09-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/dangerous-acquiantances\/"},"modified":"2009-09-11T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-09-11T00:00:00","slug":"dangerous-acquiantances","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/dangerous-acquiantances\/","title":{"rendered":"Dangerous Acquiantances"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following the astonishing success of Broken English <\/i>was not going to be easy. It had come out of nowhere, and it being such a critical and commercial success surprised no one more than Marianne herself. It would have been easy to follow up with more of the same edgy New Wave arrangements and desperate lyrics full of hatred and vitriol, but Faithfull did not take that path at all.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

What she and her collaborators came up with was a surprisingly inoffensive mainstream pop-rock album that had the critics and fans alike scratching their heads. Where was the furious downtrodden Marianne, spitting out expressions of war, depression, and sexual jealousy?\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Nowhere to be seen, according to the very first lines of the opener \u201cSweetheart:\u201d \u201cSweetheart I\u2019m changing my role in life \/ I\u2019m not rearranging the main things in my life.\u201d With those upbeat lyrics and the equally punchy arrangement, which is accented by some Barry Reynolds reggae guitar, we have a very different character than we last encountered. Faithfull now sounds defiant and hopeful for the future, in stark contrast to the personal terror that was so prevalent throughout Broken English<\/i>.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Marianne\u2019s hubby at the time Ben Brierley wrote for her the beautiful ballad \u201cIntrigue,\u201d which is given an understated performance both musically and vocally. The up-tempo popper \u201cEasy In The City\u201d never quite realizes it\u2019s potential. It\u2019s very New Wave, but lyrically it seems a tad underdone and Faithfull struggles to sound interested in this one. Next, \u201cStrange One\u201d quickly outshines the first three tracks with ease. It\u2019s basically a slow-burning blues track fleshed out with some plucky guitar and organ work.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cTenderness\u201d offers nothing memorable, but lyrically it\u2019s one of Marianne\u2019s most sensitive to date. Steve Winwood cowrote \u201cFor Beauty\u2019s Sake\u201d with Faithfull, and it clearly stands out \u2013 in a good way. \u00a0It\u2019s reminiscent of Winwood\u2019s work at the time with a great percussive track and Reynolds\u2019 trusty reggae chops to flesh it out. It remains one of Marianne\u2019s finest vocal performances, too.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

The Marianne of old couldn\u2019t resist shedding some more personal baggage, so we have the aptly titled \u201cSo Sad.\u201d Faithfull\u2019s tortured voice has rarely sounded more wounded than when she tenderly sings \u201cStrum me hard, strum me fast \/ Fears sure built in to every wall \/ Looking hard through the glass \/ Fears sure built in with every waltz.\u201d There\u2019s plenty of space due to Mark Miller Mundy\u2019s sparse production to really let the stark emotion of this one sink in.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cEye Communication\u201d suffers in the same way that \u201cEasy In The City\u201d does. It doesn\u2019t have much going for it, and once again musically, the potential remains unfulfilled. The band should really have let it rip with this one, but by choosing not to, we are left with another half-baked reggae pop ditty.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

The album\u2019s closer \u201cTruth, Bitter Truth\u201d is a tad long at over seven minutes, but it seals the deal with conviction nonetheless. Marianne writes of her youth, allbeit somewhat cryptically: \u201cWhy did you let me know \/ How could you think I\u2019d stand it \/ You knew I\u2019d pay you back \/ I did and it happened \/ Do you care?\u201d The only thing really wrong with it is that for such a personal lyric, Faithfull\u2019s voice is buried too far into the mix to generate maximum effect. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

In closing, I have to say that this is far from Marianne\u2019s best, and the fact that it followed up the classic Broken English <\/i>doesn\u2019t help its cause, even today. Marianne and her posse would redeem themselves with her next few releases, but this one remains, despite moments of inspiration, one of her most flat and disappointing albums. Dangerous Acquaintances <\/i>is for the diehards only.<\/o:p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":30051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8317],"rating":[11204],"class_list":["post-41684","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-marianne-faithfull","rating-rating-c-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41684"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}