Negative Capability (album)

The album was first announced in December 2017 in Faithfull's interview with Uncut.^[1] The album's title is a reference to the famous phrase "negative capability" used by Romantic poet John Keats in 1817 in a letter to his brothers.

Described by Faithfull as "the most honest record she's ever made", Negative Capability has a "folky" feel. "They Come at Night" was written with Mark Lanegan following the November 2015 Paris attacks. Faithfull said she got the idea from producer Hal Willner, and his theory that every seventy years the Nazis return in some form or another. She debuted the song during her concert at the Bataclan theatre in November 2016, a year after the terrorist attack took its place there.^[2]

Shot by Yann Orhan, the cover art for the album was released on 5 September 2018.

On 13 September 2018, "The Gypsy Faerie Queen" was serviced to several radio stations in Europe as the album's lead single. It was released to online music stores on 14 September 2018 along with the album becoming available for pre-order.

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	8.3/10[3]
Metacritic	88/100[4]
Review scores
Source	Rating
The 405	(8.5/10)[5]
AllMusic	[6]
Clash	(9/10)[7]
Crack Magazine	(8/10)[8]
The Guardian	[9]
MusicOMH	[10]
NME	[11]
Pitchfork	(8/10)[12]
Rolling Stone	[13]
Vice (Expert Witness)	[14]

Negative Capability was met with "universal acclaim" reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an average score of 88 based on 14 reviews.^[4]

The Guardian gave the album a five star review, calling it "a masterly meditation on ageing and death." Comparing the record with the late work of Johnny Cash and Leonard Cohen, the review noted that "Negative Capability really does belong in such exalted company."^[15]

Writing for AllMusic, Mark Deming explained: "The performance on Negative Capability comes from a vocalist who has learned a lot more about love, heartache, and the good and bad places that fate can take you than the 18-year-old ever imagined she could know. It's more than a little rueful, but also full of hard-won wisdom, and the rough edges of her voice only add to the resonance of the performance."^[6] Cameron Cook of Crack Magazine wrote: "On her 21st solo album Negative Capability, her husky voice grazes atop a pruned collection of 10 songs, some new, some revisited, but all bearing her trademark haunting aura."^[8] Mark Beaumont of NME said: "Marianne husks in a last love letter to old friends and lovers. It doesn’t define ‘Negative Capability’, however; the record might read like a last testament, but it bristles with warmth and life, a 40-minute reason to stay positive."^[11]

• Marianne Faithfull – vocals
• Nick Cave – backing vocals (1), additional vocals (2), piano (2)
• Rob McVey – guitar (1–4, 7–13), piano (7), synthesiser (7), backing vocals (2)
• Ed Harcourt – piano (1, 3, 5–6, 9–12), bass guitar (2, 10–12), baritone guitar (3, 8, 13), keyboards (4), wurlitzer (5, 6), rhodes (7), organ (7), harmonium (10, 12), backing vocals (2, 4, 9, 10, 12)
• Warren Ellis – viola (1, 2, 10, 12), synthesiser (1, 7–9, 13), violin (3, 7, 11), keyboards (4, 11), piano (4, 7), synthesiser bass (4), alto flute (5, 6, 9), backing vocals (1, 2, 4), producer
• Rob Ellis – drums (2, 4, 8, 11, 13), percussion (2–4, 7–9, 11, 13), synthesiser (4, 8, 13), piano (4, 7), bass synthesiser (5, 6), glockenspiel (10, 12), thumbjam synthesiser (13), backing vocals (1, 2, 4), producer
• Head – producer