First, a few things you need to know:

Marianne Faithfull isn’t really a singer, not in any traditional sense and not after years of a multitude of abuses to her vocal chords, but sing she does. And thank God for that.

Hal Willner isn’t really a record producer, not in any traditional sense. But as an envoy - a bring-er together-er of all things unusual, diverse, and odd (especially artists and styles of music) - he is a brilliant collagist.

Marianne Faithfull is still gorgeous, still an exceptional performer and vocal stylist.

Hel Willner hasn’t lost his touch.

Together, they seem a match conjured up in dreams.

Now, here’s the rest:

Easy Come, Easy Go is their latest collaboration and to say it is damn near flawless wouldn’t quite do it the justice it so richly deserves. But because awe has a way of taking away the power of words, Easy Come, Easy Go is indeed, a damn near flawless record (and easily my favorite record so far this year).

In the classic cultural collagist style that Willner is the unrivaled master of Willner pairs Faithfull here with a bundle of diverse, exceptionally well written and beautifully arranged cover songs (a Willner-ian move that Rick Rubin emulated somewhat successfully in his work with Johnny Cash) as well as some perfect vocal pairings with other artists.

Faithfull, for her part, nails each performance with an uncanny sense of personal style and a breathy, weathered cabaret-eqsue delivery that wears her hard years living unusually well.

Everything Willner and Faithfull touch here seems to immediately turn to gold. Whether its Espers haunting baroque pop "Children of Stone" (delivered here with vocal assistance by Rufus Wainwright) or Faithfull dueling vocally with Nick Cave on a rather astonishing and spot on rendition of the Decemberists "The Crane Wife 3" (certainly not surpassing Colin Meloy’s original vocal, but easily equalling), or Ms. Faithfull, with an assist from Keith Richards (coming off like some queerly morbid Gram Pasrsons/Emmylou Harris reincarnation) plodding through a extraordinarily funereal version Merle Haggard’s "Sing Me Back Home", Easy Come, Easy Go is in turns eclectic, weird, offbeat, brilliant, tuneful, daring, and flat out breathtaking.

And when Ms. Faithfull gets herself into places where few should dare to go; taking on Dolly Parton’s horrifying "Down From Dover", and - gulp - making it better (!?): turning Smokey Robinson’s "Ooh Baby Baby" into an eight plus minute dream-state jazzercise collaboration with Antony Hegarty (of Antony and the Johnsons): turning Neko Case’s "Hold On, Hold On" into a rollicking raucous romp: simply delivering Randy Newman’s "In Germany Before the War" like and aged, tired Marlene Deitrich should have: redefining Eddie DeLange’s "Solitude", a song that has been interpreted by renowned voices ranging from Billie Holiday to Etta James to Ella Fitzgerald, and holding her own - with ease; when Ms. Faithfull finds herself treading here where any sensible artist would fear to do so, she excels on Easy Come, Easy Go.

Willner’s smart, economic, classic arrangements certainly make Faithfull’s task a bit easier, but it’s Faithfull herself that takes the reins here and somehow manages not only to conquer these enormous challenges, she redefines them.

She takes ownership of them.

They become hers.

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