Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Down From Dover
2. Hold On Hold On - with Chan Marshall
3. Solitude
4. Crane Wife, The - with Nick Cave
5. Easy Come Easy Go
6. Children Of Stone - with Rufus Wainwright
7. How Many Worlds - with Teddy Thompson
8. In Germany Before The War
9. Ooh Baby Baby - with Antony Hegarty
10. Sing Me Back Home - with Keith Richards

Disc 2:

1. Salvation
2. Black Coffee
3. Phoenix, The - with Sean Lennon
4. Dear God Please Help Me
5. Kimbie
6. Many A Mile To Freedom - with Jenni Muldaur/Teddy Thompson
7. Somewhere - with Jarvis Cocker
8. Flandyke Shore

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5310 in Music
• Released on: 2009-03-16
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: CD
• Dimensions: .26 pounds

CD Description
The follow up to 2005's 'Before The Poison', 'Easy Come Easy Go' is an album of cover versions from Marianne Faithfull.It features several collaborations with a large number of highly distinguished artists, including Rufus Wainwright, Anthony Hegarty, Keith Richards and Nick Cave. The album was produced by the eclectic Hal Wilner, who has previously workedwith none other than Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs and Lou Reed.

Customer Reviews

Really Special
This is truly awesome. Truly eclectic, too.

The opening track 'Down From Dover' (Dolly Parton) made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Just from those opening few moments, I knew this was going to be something special.

It continued to astonish. The range of songs is just magical. Somehow, they all become Marianne Faithful songs. I know that, sometime in the future, I'm going to hear Brian Eno's 'How Many Worlds' and be surprised that he's done a cover of a Marianne Faithful song.

There are loads of 'special guests' on the album. This made me a bit wary, to be honest. You know, get an album out, make sure it sells by packing the backing band with well-known friends. No - that's not the case here. Nick Cave, Rufus Wainwright and Keith Richards really add something with their contributions, they don't detract or distract from the central figure of Marianne Faithful. The whole record works around her.

These are unique interpretations. Some tracks do remind me a lot of Kurt Weill - besides the obvious 'In Germany Before The War' by Randy Newman. Instruments like E flat clarinet, sarrusaphone (yeah, I had to look that one up on Google too) add to this. But that dark, urban feel is carried over into tracks like 'Down From Dover' (Weimar meets Nashville? :-)).

'Salvation' is another hair-raiser. It almost sounds like an Eno production, with that strange strangled droning guitar.

Sometimes, the arrangements seem deliberately perverse. Not entirely sure about Antony Hegarty with Marianne on a Smokey Robinson track (Hegarty gets funky?). In that one, Marianne seems to step back and let Antony do his thing. Marianne with Jarvis Cocker on 'Somewhere (A Place for Us)' is quite surreal, seriously black humour.

The final track 'Flandyke Shore' with simple, subtle backing from the McGarrigle Sisters (we just need Rufus' dad here for a family reunion) is beautiful. Marianne Faithful 'does' old, dark English folk songs so well - and somehow the feel of Flandyke Shore echoes back to the very first track 'Down From Dover'. Wraps the whole thing up beautifully.

I want to talk about every track here - every one of them has something special. But I won't - just listen to it.

The Queen Of Alchemical Soul
What a week it has been for mesmerising new releases !

As if the rare treat provided by the estimable Ms Gardot, whose new album
'My One and Only Thrill' gave me so much pleasure, were not sustenance enough,
here we have the marvelous Ms Faithfull back in fine fettle and firing on all six cylinders.

At 62 years old one might imagine that she might be content looking back wistfully
across the four decades of her long musical journey and resting on her laurels.

The idea of this venerable Diva lounging around watching daytime TV in an orange
quilted nylon housecoat, swigging gin and orange and downing box upon box
of Maltesers is not, however, even remotely imaginable.

The evidence of her staying power is evinced clearly here in her new 2 CD set
'Easy Come Easy Go'.
Reunited with old friend and producer Hal Wilner, Ms Faithfull has delivered one
of the most powerfully convincing albums of her career.

The abrasive mezzo ( now almost baritone ) is holding up well.
Immediately recognisable. Unequivocally unique.

These '18 Songs For Music Lovers' are an absorbingly eclectic collection.

The playfully raucous barroom blues of the title track;
a deeply disturbing rendition of Mr Newman's 'In Germany Before The War';
the dark ambiguity of Philly 'psycho-folk' band Espers' 'Children Of Stone';
the bats in the belfry take on Robinson and Moore's 'Ooh Baby Baby',
a compelling duet with a soaringly soulful Antony Hegarty.

It's all good. Very good in fact (and that's just disc one - marred slightly
by a very ropey vocal contribution by an under par Teddy Thompson
on Brian Eno's otherwise splendid 'How Many Worlds).

The collaboration with Keith Richards on Merle Haggard's 'Sing Me Back Home'
is a precious gem of a performance.


Disc two highlights include the down and dirty blues of 'Black Coffee';
the simple pared-down beauty of Judee Sill's 'The Pheonix';
the fragile deconstruction of Bernstein's 'Somewhere (A Place For Us)',
a bizarrely surreal and affecting duet with Jarvis Cocker.

Final track 'Flandyke Shore' is unimpeachably gorgeous.

Musicianship from her supporting cohorts is uniformly impeccable throughout.

With the likes of Marc Ribot, Jim White and Greg Cohen on board how could it not be ?!

Ms Faithfull remains a brightly burning beacon in an ever-darkening world.

Her considerable powers are undiminished.

In darkness and light this album delivers a wholesome and welcome punch in the guts.

Highly Recommended.

rave from the grave
Being from the same generation, Marianne Faithful was my pin up. The voice has dropped several octaves but the magic remains. The backing is sensational too. if Marianne ever turned you on this will rekindle fond memories.

Geoff