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Negative Capability
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Negative Capability Image
Metascore
88

Universal acclaim - based on 14 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 24 Ratings

  • Summary: The 21st full-length studio release for the British singer-songwriter features contributions from such artists as Warren Ellis, Nick Cave, Rob Ellis, Ed Harcourt and Mark Lanegan.
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Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 14
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 14
  3. Negative: 0 out of 14
  1. Mojo
    Oct 29, 2018
    100
    If you need reminding, it demonstrates what a good singer she is. [Dec 2018, p.90]
    All this publication's reviews
  2. musicOMH.com
    Nov 2, 2018
    100
    Her instrument has aged with her like a fine wine, like Iggy Pop, or like Mr Jagger himself. It’s completely her, completely unique. The new version is gleefully bleak and unwieldy.
  3. The Observer (UK)
    Nov 5, 2018
    100
    Comparisons with such late-career highlights as Johnny Cash’s American Recordings albums and Leonard Cohen’s You Want It Darker are inevitable, but Negative Capability really does belong in such exalted company.
  4. The 405
    Nov 7, 2018
    85
    Negative Capability is sure to stand the test of time, much like its creator. Marianne Faithfull has delivered a searing late career masterstroke, as vital as any in her storied career.
  5. Pitchfork
    Nov 19, 2018
    80
    Faithfull channels her body and mind’s ache into an album that’s her best and most honest work since Broken English. With Negative Capability, she reinforces our links by exposing her own broken places.
  6. The Guardian
    Nov 2, 2018
    80
    A collection of songs that sink deeply into the subjects of death and old age with poignancy but never self-pity.
  7. AllMusic
    Nov 5, 2018
    70
    Negative Capability is a testament to her journey and what it has taught her, and it reminds us she's still a talent capable of drawing our attention.

See all 14 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 4
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 4
  3. Negative: 0 out of 4
  1. pedroflores
    Nov 2, 2018
    10
    So mature, so raw, her voice captured me, I'd like to think it's my mother giving me advice, saying what she has lived, and what she stillSo mature, so raw, her voice captured me, I'd like to think it's my mother giving me advice, saying what she has lived, and what she still wants. Beautiful and powerful album filled with emotional songs.… Expand
  2. Craig_mackenzie
    Nov 4, 2018
    10
    Stunning and heart wrenching from start to finish; think it is better than Before the Poison, and that was pretty sensational
  4. JuanAntonio
    Nov 5, 2018
    10
    Marianne continues to provide us with coherent and solid works. Music and novel texts that reinvent their own history in music. Incredible,Marianne continues to provide us with coherent and solid works. Music and novel texts that reinvent their own history in music. Incredible, but true, Marianne Faithfull far exceeds any of the female voices that today achieve recognition only with scandalous news and very little with creativity or musical risk. In her albums, her sensitivity to literature and art is perceived, inspiring ingredients that make a difference with today's music, whose success derives from marketing tricks and manipulation in the recording studio. I prefer a thousand times this naked and imperfect voice, but authentic and honest, that all the shiny and well packaged crap that comes to us today via Pitchfork and many other media. It is pleasing to have artists like Marianne in these times of artifice and in this monotonous desert of the current music industry.… Expand
  5. addevlin
    Nov 10, 2018
    10
    Quite simply a stunning album. Faithfull is at her creative peak with this recording. Her voice is used to perfection, delivering an album ofQuite simply a stunning album. Faithfull is at her creative peak with this recording. Her voice is used to perfection, delivering an album of melencholic masterpieces. Dealing mainly with loss, paging and death - you'd be excused for thinking this would be a bleak album however it is full of hope and longing and with just enough verve in her delivery and the production to make this a listening delight. This is an album of someone that has lived a full life. "No Moon In Paris", "In My Particular Way" and "Loneliest Person" are all stand out tracks, that will help to ensure Marianne Faithfull is long remembered as one of the very best vocal interrupters every to step into a recording studio. This album is essential listening, in fact to my ears, it is the best album of the year (so far...).… Expand

Awards & Rankings

12
#12 Best Album of 2018

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