Negative Capability

These songs may be scorched with an unavoidable yearning quality, but they find her standing at a new creative peak: ‘The Gypsy Faerie Queen’, co-written with Nick Cave, might rank among the best songs either have written, while ‘Born To Live’, her piano-led paean to departed lifelong friend Anita Pallenberg, speaks of our corporeal impermanence with a calm but unswervingly frank honesty.

There won't be a better record released this month, and very few this year. This is one for the ages. [Nov 2018, p.84]

If you need reminding, it demonstrates what a good singer she is. [Dec 2018, p.90]

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.

On Negative Capability, she captures John Keats's timeless view on artistic beauty with genuine conviction.

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.

The Gypsy Faerie Queen, co-written and performed with Cave, and the Lanegan-scored They Come At Night, addressing the attack on the Bataclan, are among the LP's finest moments, but it's Born To Live, a tribute to the late Anita Pallenberg, that proves its most stirring. [Dec 2018, p.107]

There are also moments of tenderness (“No Moon at Night”) and vulnerability (“Misunderstanding,” “In My Own Particular Way”) that make it one of her most compelling albums to date.

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.

A collection of songs that sink deeply into the subjects of death and old age with poignancy but never self-pity.

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.

The songwriting and lyricism are strong, but her storied voice elevates the album and invests it with a depth and serenity that few can match. [Jan 2019, p.64]