Marianne Faithfull, the Grand Dame Of Rock, has continued to enjoy one of the most eclectic and unlikely careers (almost 50 years long) in the business to date.\u00a0 With the success of her previous album (2009’s sublime Easy Come, Easy Go<\/i>) still fresh in their minds, Faithfull and her trusted producer Hal Willner decided to strike while the iron was hot and get cracking on the rather swift (by today’s standards) follow-up.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Heading to New Orleans, the pair gathered some of the best local talent (which included George Porter Jr., Carlo Nuccio and Doug Pettibone) and some assorted friends (Lou Reed, Wayne Kramer and Mac Rebennack) to help create a more laid-back and spontaneous record than its predecessor.\u00a0 Faithfull has never been one to repeat herself or just stick with what she knows will work, and so rather than make another complete album of covers, she decided it was time to begin writing again and so included four of her own songs into the mix that turned out about half covers and half original material.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Marianne was clearly inspired to write by the fact that her decades-long personal relationship with her partner\/manager Francois Ravard had come to an end, and whilst the pair continue their professional and creative connection, it can\u2019t have been an easy process for Faithfull during the two months of recording (Sep-Oct 2010).\u00a0 Marianne let her pen do the talking, though, as all we have to know about that situation is articulated perfectly in her own \u201cWhy Did We Have To Part,\u201d on which she is backed by a cool bluesy rock track as she looks back on their union and offers a heartfelt delivery.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Three more Faithfull originals are scattered throughout the album here, and they all are rewarding in their own way.\u00a0 \u201cPrussian Blue\u201d is a wonderful retro folksy\/rock song that is in stark contrast with dire lyrics.\u00a0 The mood is brighter though on the breezy \u201cEternity\u201d as Marianne looks ahead to life after her \u201ceverlasting year.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n
My favorite Faithfull song on the record is the wonderful title track, which again finds her reminiscing of times long ago: \u201cWhen I lived in the city of darkness \/ It suited my face and my tears \/ The talk, the drink and the friends were good \/ And stood for my hopes and my fears.\u201d\u00a0 The sweeping and stately track is perfectly suited to Faithfull\u2019s enchanting story.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Irish playwright and long-time pal Frank McGuiness wrote \u201cThe Old House\u201d for Marianne and it adds some mystique to the proceedings, a great way to close the album out.\u00a0 At the other end of the scale, the album\u2019s opener \u201cThe Stations\u201d is a great fit for Marianne as she again takes aim at the convent where she was schooled \u2013 a recurring theme in Faithfull\u2019s work.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s How Every Empire Falls\u201d is a stunning song and a clear highlight, fitting the themes of the record perfectly.\u00a0 There are, however, some light moments to help keep things somewhat cheerful most of the time and they come in the form of some cleverly selected covers.\u00a0 \u201cPast, Present And Future\u201d is given a starkly different reworking that barely resembles the Shangri-La\u2019s original; it shouldn\u2019t work really for several reasons, but as is often the case with Marianne, it works for her.\u00a0 Carole King\u2019s \u201cGoin\u2019 Back\u201d gets a fine workout as does Lesley Duncan\u2019s \u201cLove Song.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n
The up-tempo and rollicking \u201cNo Reason\u201d shakes and shimmies with vigor and is matched by the equally thrilling \u201cGee Baby,\u201d both giving the record some great chill-out moments.\u00a0 Also surprising is the soulful offering of Allen Toussaint\u2019s \u201cBack In Baby\u2019s Arms,\u201d which is given the grandest arrangement here featuring some beautiful strings and great backing vocals.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
All in all, there\u2019s not much more to say except for this: Horses And High Heels, <\/i>Faithfull\u2019s 18th<\/sup> studio album, is one of her very best and the most profound statement since 1998\u2019s Vagabond Ways<\/i>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":30817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8317],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-42491","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-marianne-faithfull","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42491","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=42491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42491"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42491"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}