MARIANNE FAITHFULL Broken English (Island)

by Mitch Cohen

“I never lied to my lover/But if I did I would admit it/if I could get away with murder/I'd take my gun and I’d commit it.”

Lines like those, from “Guilt,” and others like “You go on and on/Like a blood stain” (“Brain Drain”) or “Do you feel the panic?/ Can you see the fear?” (“Witches’ Tune”) have, for the past few days and nights, been the trigger for unsettling dreams. Sung in a cracked, determined voice, framed by seamless, throbbingly modern music, the songs on Broken English (what a marvelous puzzle of a title) let it bleed. The album is provocative by design, courageous by necessity, brimming with reverberations.