Marianne Faithfull - Before the Poison

Only so-so, which is disappointing. Most of the ten songs on this record were written or co-written with Faithfull by PJ Harvey or Nick Cave (there's also one by Damon Albarn, and one co-write with Aimee Mann collaborator Jon Brion), which ought to've been a fruitful series of collaborations. But, with the exception of a couple of Nick Cave ballads - "Crazy Love" and "There Is A Ghost" - and the Albarn track, "Last Song", the results don't do it for me; the music is ominous and churning and all that jazz, but it lacks the dark, cinematic lushness of a song like "Who Will Take My Dreams Away?", always the starting point for Marianne and I.