***1/2 Marianne Faithfull

20TH CENTURY BLUES

(RCA Victor)

The years have left Faithfull's fluty, girlish tones in glorious ruin. But as with ancient statuary, the beauty now lies in its cracks, chips, and creases. On this live album (from her 1995 stage show, An Evening in the Weimar Republic), the whisky-throated chanteuse belts out the exuberantly scrappy odes of Kurt Weill, among them "Alabama Song," "Surabaya Johnny," and the "Morität" from The Threepenny Opera, a/k/a "Mack the Knife." Faithfull's rendition takes wicked glee in lyricist Bertolt Brecht's sociopathic antihero Macheath, as opposed to the sanitized pop-standard versions by Bobby Darin and Ella Fitzgerald. On "Pirate Jenny," she spits out the wistful revenge fantasy of a bitter prostitute. She shows a softer side with "The Ballad of the Soldier's Wife," an ominous travelogue of a WWI soldier's gifts sent home, the last item being a widow's veil. Faithfull offers context in between-song commentary. She's accompanied by pianist Paul Trueblood, and together they travel down dirty Berlin alleys, the rainy banks of the Seine, and foggy London streets. The other songwriters covered include Noel Coward ("Cavalcade") and Faithfull's longtime friend, the late Harry Nilsson ("Don't Forget Me").

-- Mary Ricciardi