Marianne Faithfull
Easy Come Easy Go
(Love Da Records)
Marianne Faithfull sounds much as she always has (although detractors say cocaine has deepened her voice). Even so, many of the songs here seem dated and out of touch.
It's a collection of covers - and her third recording to be produced by Hal Willner - but the songs sound tired, creaky and desperate, and although it begins promisingly, the tracks slow to a dirge-like pace.
Faithfull sings and talks her way through 10 numbers with help from, among others, Keith Richards, Sean Lennon, Nick Cave and Rufus Wainwright, but their presence isn't enough to lift the recording. Some tracks are worth transferring to your iPod: Billie Holiday's Solitude and Down From Dover, written by Dolly Parton.