Decca Canada Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Recorded during the final year of her life, this posthumous release finds Marianne Faithfull looking both backwards and forwards - reconciling the weight of legacy with the intimacy of reflection. Across these four new tracks, she honours the dual foundations of her 60-year career: chamber pop and traditional British folk. 'Burning Moonlight', co-produced with long-time collaborator Head, echoes the melancholic grandeur of 'As Tears Go By', while 'Love Is (Head version)', written with her grandson Oscar Dunbar, floats with tender defiance. The flip side turns to lineage and tradition: 'Three Kinsmen Bold' is stark and ancestral, passed down from her father and 'She Moved Thru' The Fair' is sparse, aching, and spectral. Faithfull was born in Hampstead and came of age in 60s London, and here, on what is now her final release, she returns to the very start - not out of nostalgia, but with grace and resolve. It's the completion of a circle, yes, but it still leaves a faint line trailing off into the air.