Marianne Faithfull – Dangerous Acquaintances

"Broken English" was a hard act to follow. "Dangerous Acquaintances" stumbles rather than walks on. Honestly, I don't think it is anything approaching a good album, coming across as hastily slapped together superficial 80s cashgrab.

AllMusic Review by Richie Unterberger
A rather lukewarm, disappointing follow-up to Broken English, on which Marianne Faithfull seemed to be retreating from that album's sonic and lyrical risks. Although Broken English had found most of its audience with the new wave/alternative crowd (songs like "Why'd Ya Do It," after all, were too shocking to get much commercial airplay), Dangerous Acquaintances seemed to be moving back to more mainstream rock territory, particularly in the arrangements. It's always a possible sign of trouble when there are over a dozen session musicians in the credits, and much of the record's music has a sort of anonymous feel. The songs, too, are less striking (and less angrily risqué) than those of Broken English, although Faithfull was still carving her own identity with lyrics about romantic duplicity. The most commercially accessible track, "For Beauties Sake," was co-written by Faithfull and Steve Winwood.

cassette version of this in a cigarette box style card sleeve. ICT 9648, part of islands 1+1 series where one side is an album and the other side is blank.