opener, "Sex With Strangers," swaddling in wet-blanket electronics Faithfull's parched rap about the momentary comforts of anonymous fucking. Corgan's New Romantic machines in "I'm on Fire" are also too pillowy and clean to bring the heat. But in "Wherever I Go," Corgan puts Faithfull in front of the song's creamy swing; you can feel the weariness seeping from the cracks in her voice. And Beck uses the medieval whisper of celesta and harmonium to frame Faithfull's candid family memories in "Like Being Born," a comely cousin of her 1964 hit "As Tears Go By."

Faithfull reflects without flinching in "Song for Nico," an epitaph for the late Velvet Underground ice queen, and "Sliding Through Life on Charm," a graphic memoir largely written by Cocker through Faithfull's eyes. But the most chilling thing here is a cover of "Nobody's Fault," from Beck's Mutations: Faithfull pours every drop of her survivor's story into the song, while Beck arranges the shadows and light in the music with a sympathy and wonder for the great weight she will always bear.

DAVID FRICKE
(RS 903 - August 22, 2002)