SECRET'S OUT
MARIANNE FAITHFULL
A Secret Life (Island 5240961, LP, Greece, 1995) £130
At the more interesting end of the Record Store Day 2023 release list is an entry that rights an old injustice, reviving an album that never got a fair chance and which was prematurely confined to semi-obscurity.
In 1995, Marianne Faithfull teamed up with the late American composer Angelo Badalamenti for an album of moody, nocturnal, orchestrated art songs. The New York-born Badalamenti was particularly celebrated for his work with director David Lynch, and had won a Grammy in 1990 for the Twin Peaks theme, so it's hard to imagine a more fitting collaborator for Faithfull, whose work up to that point had not shied away from challenging and ominous subject matter. It was precisely Badalamenti's music for Twin Peaks that prompted Faithfull to seek him out for collaboration. Though he rarely made albums with singers (Julee Cruise was another exception), he readily responded to Faithfull's overtures.
A Secret Life was a terrifically diverse record, with traces of trip-hop (Love In The Afternoon), chanson (She), euro-funk (The Wedding) and icy rock that wouldn't have sounded out of place on Broken English (Bored By Dreams). The recording captured some of Faithfull's most poignant and affecting poetry, framed by Badalamenti's beautifully empathetic, filmic musical settings.
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