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Uncut JUNE 2021 - by Rob Hughes

MARIANNE FAITHFULL WITH WARREN ELLIS: SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY

19th-century poetry set to spacious new soundscapes

English Romantic verse has been part of Faithfull's life since her teens, which makes She Walks In Beauty, named after the Byron poem, the realisation of a longstanding ambition. At seventy-four, her spoken readings of Keats, Shelley, Wordsworth and others are now imbued with rich personal experience, her imperious tones backlit by Warren Ellis's meditative ambience. Guests , Nick Cave (on pellucid piano) and cellist Vincent Ségal add further depth to arrangements that never intrude, yet are nonetheless striking. What lingers is that vivid voice, as heroically time-worn as the effigy of Shelley's Ozymandias.