Recorded around the earliest days of the COVID-19 lockdown — during which
the singer herself became infected and almost died of the disease — She Walks
in Beauty fulfils Faithfull’s long-held ambition to record a full album of
poetry with music, and features musical friends Nick Cave, Brian Eno, cellist
Vincent Ségal and producer-engineer Head (PJ Harvey, Thom Yorke).
She Walks in Beauty finds Faithfull drawing deep on the works of Shelley, Keats,
Byron, Wordsworth, Tennyson and Thomas. Her vocal performances, set to Ellis’
subtle collages of sound, draw out the vibrant living matter in these great
poems, renewing them with the complex, lived-in timbres of her voice.
It’s both a radical departure and a return to her original inspirations as an
artist and performer.
Faithfull first developed a passion for the English Romantic poets in her
A Level studies with one Mrs. Simpson at St Joseph's Convent School in
Reading, before leaving for London at the age of 16. She has returned to poetry
for inspiration many times since: whether on 1979’s Broken English, an album
which featured her setting to music Heathcote Williams’ poem of eviscerating
rage, “Why’d Ya Do It,” or on subsequent albums, such as
1995’s A Secret Life, which featured the poems of her friend Frank
McGuinness, or 1998’s Seven Deadly Sins which explored the work of Kurt Weill
and Bertolt Brecht.
Still, the works chosen for She Walks in Beauty hold special pride of place.
“I wasn’t in doubt,” says Faithfull. “I’ve been thinking about it for
so long, this album, it’s been in my head for so long, I think I really
knew exactly what I wanted. I just picked the poems I really loved, and
I can’t help but say I think I was very lucky. We got it.”
