Kissin' Time

With it's remarkable, hypnotic, hard-rock chant of a title cut, the heavily promoted single Sex With Strangers sung (or very nearly spoken) in her trademark sultry contralto, and all the other tracks in between, Kissin' Time, Marianne Faithfull's 9th studio album since Broken English, sets a new benchmark and proves once again that as an artist, she is strongest within the element of surprise.

Though Broken English marked her solid reemergence onto the music scene nearly 23 years ago, Kissin' Time virtually assures the often tossed-about title of legend is justly applied. Despite the fact that was recorded in Paris, London, Chicago and L.A.; and is a collaboration with several additional co-writers and no less than four producers, it is as coherent and headstrong a recording as Faithfull has made to date. Forget Broken English, for the moment anyway.

The album's opening track, Sex With Strangers, a collaboration with Beck as co-writer and producer, finds Faithfull breathily taking smooth center stage over a clipped techno-funk back beat. And when track two, The Pleasure Song, kicks in with a synthesized percolating bass groove, you might think that this is going to be just another techno relic of an album; but then, the cut morphs into solid rock, with conventional drums kicking in over all the electronica. "Are you with me, or without me? Are you with me now, or am I alone?" Well, alone, maybe, but certainly stronger for it. As the track ends, a solid guitar power chord crashes down seemingly out of nowhere. You suddenly realize the tone of what's to come. At 55, Faithfull is no stranger to rock, and throughout the course of this disc she defines it as her own.

Again co-written with Beck (Hansen), Like Being Born reads as an answer to some of the questions that the artist raised in Electra, on 2000's Vagabond Ways. Despite it being a reflection of a new wave of self-analysis, she overcomes self-preoccupation with a delicate, plaintive delivery. This is effectively complemented by the pleasantly dreary, neo-baroque keyboards and guitar arrangement which add to the faintly bittersweet tone.

Don't look for extreme vocal miracles here, but do take time to savor the small ones; Faithfull tends to reserve her strongest, bring-the-house-down vocalization for her memorable live performances. As limited as her pipes may sometimes seem after years on the edge, she nonetheless displays an impressive, expressive emotional range, which varies in emphasis from album to album, song to song. Overall, her primary vocal range encompasses the better part of three octaves, and on Kissin' Time as with Vagabond Ways and Strange Weather, she tends to stray toward the lower end. Here, the singing is generally straightforward and unaffected, sometimes almost conversational. On I'm On Fire, which she co-wrote with Billy Corgan, the wall of noise production puts the singer's vocal style nearly in the background, but not to disadvantage. Whereas on 1995's A Secret Life (as on Broken English), she captured the full value of her unusual voice as a true musical instrument, she's not as preoccupied with it here. And that's ok. Because Billy Corgan's Wherever I Go reads as sweetly as anything she's recorded in recent memory, and Song For Nico is sung clearly --- rich and round with passion. In her tribute to the late singer, she briefly chronicles the 1960's decadence of Warhol and Délon. This cut, like several others on the disc, is imminently ready for progressive FM radio, which has had an unjustifiable love-hate relationship with Faithfull over the years (although part of the blame could easily fall to her prior long relationship with Island Records, and their inability to effectively choose and market singles for her in the US). The chorus, "Yesterday is gone, there's just today, no tomorrow; Yesterday is gone, there's just today, no more," is an immediate, haunting hook.

Probably most out of place here is the odd, pounding chronicle Sliding Through Life On Charm, right smack in the middle of the disc It seems to rehash the penchant for hard-core profanity that was so novel and immediate on Why'd Ya Do It? from Broken English, but the lyric is more forced and self-preoccupied. Somehow, though, in the end, it works, almost to a fault, as you wind up tapping your toes to "Go ahead why don't you leave me to those thugs, and creeps who want to fuck a nun on drugs." To know the story is to love it, and at least it shows that Faithfull, whose dry sense of humor is somewhat famous, can appreciate the inside jokes within those odd moments that make up her life's history.

Immediately afterward, though, her musical genius surfaces again in Love and Money. Now this IS a toe-tapping ditty, which bounces along like nothing else I've heard before. Part '60's bar room go-go funk, with a bass and guitar to match, and part love song, the lyric is a series of questions answered by her persistent "Uh-huh", and separated by an effectively short bridge before coming all-too soon to a close. In the course of two minutes and sixteen seconds, she manages to ask, "Is it a crisis? Is it a crime? Or is it a fantasy? Will it take time? See you at parties - you're never the same - do you make money? What is your name? Where can I find you? Out in the night? Who are your friends? Are they dark or light?"

Nobody's Fault, a cover of a Beck tune, finds Faithfull in the context of an epic rock ballad, and purely at home. But it's the closing cut, the title song Kissin' Time, in which the sheer power of this album becomes crystallized. With it's opening bass line, slightly fuzzed, which builds into drums, handclaps, guitar power chords and ghostly spontaneous background chants before it even reaches the full chorus, the tune is an easy contender for song of the year on many lists. "So pass on by, you'll never find out - I love someone else/Find your God you'll find yourself/But, he falls/I'm confessing to you/Just my guess, it's a kissin' time" It embodies everything rock is about, uninhibited, wailing vocals, a powerful lyric, hooks out to there, great guitars, bass, drums and keyboards, and that mysterious something special that all great songs have. I've tested the cut on several people I'd generally consider ambivalent about Marianne Faithfull's music, and the enthusiastic reaction is nearly universal.

With Kissin' Time, Marianne Faithfull pulls together a musical journey that transcends time and space. Still in US pre-release, the album is widely available as an import in several versions (the issue I have also includes an excellent Sly and Robbie remix of Sex With Strangers). In the 38 years since a 17 year old Marianne achieved international stardom with As Tears Go By, she's come a long, long way. And with Kissin Time, you get the feeling that the discovery is starting all over again. Faithfull, for all her travails, seems newborn and ancient all at once, and it's this ageless quality that is so beautifully captured here. Highly recommended.

If Marianne Faithfull could ever be accused of having a formula, it would be simply to face her music head-on, often with thankful and welcome disregard to the critics and nay-sayers who had seemed to will her towards an early death or at the very least, to will her career another precipitous demise.

In spite of those who predicted the worst, she has not only grown stronger over the years since 1979's Broken English signaled her startling musical re-emergence, but she has continually pushed the creative envelope. Well-rehearsed and technically perfect, the album introduced Faithfull's voice in a strange new form - a broken, somewhat masculine, whiskey-and-cigarettes contralto that bore little resemblance to the innocuous mid-60's cooing and warbling for which she was most well-known. Despite it's unusual timbre, Faithfull's used her voice with precision and charm. The setting for the songs was dark, and the tone was an imperative and unforgiving spin on punk and Goth. Broken English was preceded in 1978 (or 1976, as there are two versions of the release) by the unique country-blues of Faithless, which was well-received in Europe and the UK but has only now begun to gain a worldwide audience. It was, upon its debut, her most meaningful work since Decca pulled her 1970 single Sister Morphine. That episode among others, along with her many personal demons (which came to life all at once in Broken English) put a temporary halt to her career.

Though not always hitting the mark on all counts, she has since covered a remarkably wide range of territory, and has in most cases done it exceedingly well. Drifting from Broken English next into 1981's Dangerous Acquaintances, she stiffened a bit but did not lose her resolve; awash in the velvety, crystalline haze of 1983's A Child's Adventure she began to truly confront those demons head-on. It was during this period that she recorded the remarkable rock ballads So Sad, Running for Our Lives, Falling From Grace and Ireland. With the landmark 1987 release, Strange Weather, her first complete album since her re-emergence recorded without the burden of addiction, she challenged the listener even further to completely rethink the concept of the pop album. In a musical setting of hard-core blues, jazz and Broadway standards mixed with snippets of Dylan and Dr. John, the results were immediate, though not conventionally pretty. But once again, she broke new ground. I just made a point to listen again, carefully, to Strange Weather, and found it much more haunting and far more imposing with age.

She has continued to build an increasing legacy of written work as well as an impressive catalog of recordings. Whether delving into the Weimar Republic of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht (for no less than two complete albums and two worldwide tours, which included appearances with major symphonies and sinfoniettas), or appearing in television and movies (most notably as God in BBC's Absolutely Fabulous, and as the somewhat dim-witted but headstrong Betty in 2001's disturbing, award-winning cinematic release Intimacy as well as in Far From China - to be released later this year) and Broadway, too --- it seemed like there were no limits for Faithfull, the born-again workaholic, yet there was still, somehow, this unspoken expectation that she needed to create another Broken English.

But why bother? 1995's A Secret Life (with Faithfull's vocals uncharacteristically sinuous against the backdrop of Angelo Badalamenti's stirring, somewhat orchestral production) and 2000's Vagabond Ways, like the legacy of work which preceded them, each carried a voice of their own. With Vagabond Ways, Faithfull seemed to have it all, bringing some of the best elements from Strange Weather and Faithless into a quirky and unique amalgamation. And these are the recordings in which Faithfull's legacy as a songwriter, if its place was uncertain before, was cemented in stone. From these two albums, smoldering classics like Sleep, Flaming September, Bored By Dreams, The Stars Line Up, The Wedding, Electra, File It Under Fun From The Past and The Wilder Shores of Love emerged, to set the stage for what was next to come.v

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