Marianne Faithfull and Warren Ellis share collaborative album title-track "She Walks in Beauty"

After announcing their She Walks In Beauty album last month, Faithfull and Ellis have unveiled the title-track as the lead single, which sees Faithfull recite one of Lord Byron's most famous poems "She Walks in Beauty" to music composed by Ellis.

Lord Byron reportedly wrote the poem after attending a party at Lady Sarah Caroline Sitwell’s on June 11, 1814.

Faithfull says of Lord Byron's poem, "It’s very romantic, not like you imagine Byron to be. It’s so beautiful, and that’s why I like it. I love the other side of Byron too, but this is really amazing, sublime. And I was very drawn to the ability to do really beautiful rhymes. I think that’s from being a songwriter. It’s incredibly nice. Not what I connect with Lord Byron at all."

She Walks In Beauty was recorded before and during the first COVID-19 lockdown (Faithfull was discharged from hospital in April after contracting the virus), and will follow her 2018 album Negative Capability.

The album - inspired by her love of English Romantic poets - was created with The Bad Seeds' Warren Ellis, and will also include contributions from Nick Cave, Brian Eno, cellist Vincent Ségal, and producer/engineer Head.

Speaking about her love for poetry, Faithfull adds, "When I was 13 or 14, I bought myself a book, Palgrave’s Golden Treasury, and that really turned me on to poetry, lots of different poetry. And then there was my English teacher at the convent, Mrs Simpson. I was studying for my A Levels in the year before I got discovered. Very happy. Then I was discovered and never finished them, but I learnt a lot and it never left me, so I had this idea all my life, really, that I wanted to make the most beautiful poetry record with music."