Before the Poison

Infobox Album |
Name = Before the Poison
Type = Album
Artist = Marianne Faithfull


Released = January 25, 2005
Recorded = June-October, 2003
The Fallout Shelter and Mayfair Studio, London
Genre = Rock
Label = Anti Records/Naïve
Producer = PJ Harvey
Nick Cave
Hal Willner
Rob Ellis
Head
Reviews =
* Allmusic Rating|4.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:ad47gjvr56in link]
Last album = "Kissin' Time"
(2003)
This album = "Before the Poison"
(2005)
Next album = "Easy Come, Easy Go"
(2008)

"Before the Poison" is the eighteenth studio album by Marianne Faithfull, recorded in 2003 and released in 2005.

Overview

The album has a dark and fatalistic mood, which Faithfull attributes partially to the post-9/11 world.

Faithfull enlisted musicians PJ Harvey and Nick Cave, as well as Damon Albarn and producer Jon Brion, with whom she had collaborated on her previous release, "Kissin' Time".
* Besides producing and performing on five tracks, Harvey gave her three songs ("The Mystery of Love", "My Friends Have" and "No Child Of Mine" -- an excerpt of the last one appears on PJ's album, "Uh Huh Her") and co-wrote another two with Faithfull.
* Cave co-produces with Hal Willner the three tracks on which he wrote the music over Faithfull's lyrics ("Crazy Love", "There Is a Ghost" and "Desperanto") and had his supporting band, The Bad Seeds, performing on all of them.
* Albarn, who appears with Blur in a song on Faithfull's previous album, "Kissin' Time", co-wrote "Last Song" with her. Another version of the song, with different lyrics on the verses, was later released as "Green Fields" on his unnamed band's 2007 album, "The Good, the Bad and the Queen".
* Jon Brion, also featured on "Kissin' Time", shares with the singer the songwriting credits of "City of Quartz", the last song of the album.

Trivia

Faithfull spoke in Mojo magazine about the curious fact that two of the album's collaborators, PJ Harvey and Nick Cave, were not on speaking terms. (The two ended a personal relationship in the late 1990s and have not spoken since.) In a February 2005 interview to Mojo, she said that "They didn’t need to speak to each other. They were with me. One is one thing and one is the other and I am the connection. With Polly I was in the studio for around 10 days and then later on I was in the studio for about five days with Nick and the Bad Seeds. Nick didn’t even hear the Polly stuff - I gave it to him but I don’t think he listened. The only area that was difficult was that they didn’t want to be seen in competition with each other."

Achievement on charts

"Before the Poison" reached position #37 at Billboard Top Independent Albums in 2005. It peaked at #31 in France, #36 in Denmark and #61 in Switzerland.

Track listing

# "The Mystery of Love" (PJ Harvey) – 3:53
# "My Friends Have" (PJ Harvey) – 2:48
# "Crazy Love" (Marianne Faithfull/Nick Cave) – 4:04
# "Last Song" (Marianne Faithfull/Damon Albarn) – 3:19
# "No Child of Mine" (PJ Harvey) – 6:15
# "Before the Poison" (Marianne Faithfull/PJ Harvey) – 4:10
# "There Is a Ghost" (Marianne Faithfull/Nick Cave) – 4:32
# "In the Factory" (Marianne Faithfull/PJ Harvey) – 3:51
# "Desperanto" (Marianne Faithfull/Nick Cave) – 4:22
# "City of Quartz" (Marianne Faithfull/Jon Brion) – 4:04

Production credits

*Tracks 1, 2, 5, 6 & 8:
**Produced by PJ Harvey (June-July 2003)
**Recorded and mixed by Head
**Vocals and handclapping: Marianne Faithfull
**Electric and acoustic guitars, bass, synth, backing vocals, piano, slide bass: PJ Harvey
**Drums, piano, percussion, glockenspiel, handclapping: Rob Ellis
**Synth bass, electric guitar, bass: Adrian Utley

*Tracks 3, 7 & 9:
**Produced by Nick Cave and Hal Willner (October 2003)
**Recorded and mixed by Rik Simpson
**Vocals: Marianne Faithfull
**Musicians: Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Martyn P. Casey and Jim Sclavunos

*Tracks 4 & 10:
**Produced by Rob Ellis and Head (September 2003)
**Recorded and mixed by Head
**Assistant engineers: Andrew Rugg and Rik Simpson
**Vocals: Marianne Faithfull
**Drums, piano, percussion, vibraphone, sound effects, string arrangements: Rob Ellis
**Acoustic guitar, bass, toy piano, sampling: Adrian Utley
**Violin: Catherine Browning
**Cello: Andy Nice
**Piano: Diana Gutkind

*Mastering: John Dent
*Photos: Jean Baptiste Mondino