In principle, I like Marianne Faithfull, both in her winsome 60s incarnation and upon her subsequent, gravel-voiced re-emergence. In fact, though, I tend to find her music - from all points in her long, if sporadic, recording career - more or less uninteresting; I suppose that while she's unquestionably an icon, that hasn't come about particularly because of her musical talent. Indeed, the liner notes for Folk Rock and Faithfull, a collection of songs recorded in the vein of her early, wistful, folky girl-pop between '64 and '69, obliquely make a similar point, remarking that "[Faithfull's] influence on mid-sixties Brit Girl pop was rather out of proportion with her tally of hits - just four Top Tenners".
The compilation itself brings out both the strengths and the weaknesses of the style: the mood and sound are evocative - both of their particular era and of a more intangible state of mind, the latter explaining why the style has been so persistent, recurring as a strong influence on a range of genres at intervals since the sixties - but individual songs and performers don't tend to stand out, probably in large part because the form itself doesn't lend itself to innovation.
As to Easy Come Easy Go, this is Faithfull's most recent album and I wanted to like it (particularly given that it was a gift from Kim), but there's just not much to it - Faithfull growls her way through a double cd of covers (including of Neko Case's "Hold On, Hold On"), but doesn't add anything to the originals other than the simple act of doing them over in her own, rather montonous latter-day style.
