On this album Faithfull collaborates extensively with PJ Harvey and Nick Cave. There are three Harvey covers: Mystery Of Love, My Friends Have and No Child Of Mine, while the title track and In The Factory are co-written by them with Marianne contributing lyrics. Nick Cave features as music composer on Crazy Love, There Is A Ghost and Desperanto.
The style varies from the messy rock of My Friends Have and the tuneful pop ballad Crazy Love with its lovely violins to the bluesy Last Song and the slow mournful rock of No Child Of Mine with its complex and stirring vocal interplay. A torch rock outing, the title track is so gloomy it would have made Nico of the VU proud and There Is A Ghost is only somewhat lighter, with beautiful piano against eerie synths.
In The Factory is a slab of slow brooding rock with great guitar work and a melancholy chorus, whilst the rhythmic and uptempo Desperanto rocks on in an atmospheric drone of guitars, synths and a male choir. The masterpiece of this album is the last track, City Of Quartz. It is a most evocative poem set against a magical mix led by music box sounds, to an enchanting effect.
I do not think Before The Poison is on the level of her classics like Vagabond Ways or the Island records Broken English, Dangerous Acquaintances and Times Square, but her fans will enjoy it. The mood is dark and otherworldly overall; it is an album of dirges. But what beauty in that grief, or sweet sorrow. Marianne Faithfull once again wraps herself in the sound of the times on this album, enriching the world of music.