New music by Manchester Orchestra, Marianne Faithfull and more
Marianne Faithfull, "She Walks in Beauty" (BMG)
The elevator pitch for this album doesn't do it justice. The veteran singer, known for '60s cuts such as "When Tears Go By," reads Romantic poetry (from Byron, Keats, Shelley and the like) over ethereal soundscapes by Nick Cave cohort Warren Ellis.
Sounds self-indulgent, right? It's anything but. Faithfull's weathered yet still-exquisite voice draws each degree of emotion from these classic lyric lines, and Ellis' production proves sublime. This is a serene bit of beauty, a few moments of grace in a world that's too often graceless.