In the early- to-mid-1970s, it would have been hard to imagine that Marianne Faithfull, a homeless junkie on the streets of London, would have the best of her musical career in front of her. But it’s true. Although still plagued by addiction for some years before getting clean, Faithfull began a comeback in earnest with 1979’s Broken English, a far cry from her ’60s ingenue days that gave her a hit with As Tears Go By, written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

She has been very productive since, and although she doesn’t hit the mark with every release, Faithfull has managed to make more than a handful of quality albums. Her latest, Easy Come Easy Go, a covers record produced by Hall Willner, with whom she has done some of her best work, is one such entry.

Willner’s production is pristine and he has assembled an outstanding roster of musicians and vocalists who give Faithfull some of the best support she has ever enjoyed. A core rhythm section of Rob Burger, keyboards, Jim White, drums, Greg Cohen, bass, and Marc Ribot, Barry Reynolds and Sean Lennon on guitars, is augmented by singers Chan Marshall, Nick Cave, Rufus Wainwright, Teddy Thompson, Jenni Muldaur and Antony. But Faithfull is still the focal point with her world-weary, weathered voice that exudes experience and carries most of the album’s tunes, despite technical shortcomings, with character and an almost old-world charm.

Unlike Strange Weather, one of Faithfull’s best in collaboration with Willner that was heavy on ballad standards with a cabaret style at times, the moderate to uptempo songs work best on this album. Although there are some gems among the slow-tempo numbers.

One of the album’s highlights is the opener, Dolly Parton’s Down From Dover. Cohen’s acoustic bass drives the mid-tempo tune that features an elegantly pervasive horn arrangement by Steve Weisberg and Faithfull’s individualistic vocal rendering. Doesn’t sound like a Parton tune at all.

The uptempo Neko Case song Hold On, Hold On isn’t quite as successful with Faithfull reaching down  into her lowest register on a song in which Case soars, but with support from Marshall and a cacaphony of Warren Ellis’ electric violin and Lennon’s and Reynolds’ guitars on the tag, the track proves interesting at the least.

Duke Ellington’s Solitude is exquisite with a clarinet quintet and Ribot’s wah-wah guitar that at first sounds like a muted coronet, and Nick Cave gives capable vocal suppport on the Celtic sounding The Crane Wife 3, another excellent Weisberg arrangement that includes a string quartet. It should be noted the work of Ribot, whose unique and tasteful playing is highlighted on Raising Sand by Robert Plant & Allison Krauss, is stellar throughout this record.

Other ballads that work well include Children Of Stone with Rufus Wainwright, Randy Newman’s Kurt Weill-esque In Germany Before The War, a Cohen arrangement with clarinets prominent again, and Morrissey’s Dear God Please Help Me on which Faithfull delivers perhaps her best vocal on the album.

One with mixed results is Smokey Robinson’s Ooh Baby Baby. The vocal performances by Faithfull and Antony are fine, particularly in an added uptempo middle section, but Steve Bernstein’s ornate and delicate arrangement seems at times overwrought in the intro and verses.

The title track has an early 20th century jazz feel with a trio of Eb clarinet, sarrusophone, a type of oboe/bassoon replacement instrument, and alto horn, a kind of cross between a coronet and a French horn, to complement the base rhythm section. Faithfull pulls off the 1920s nightclub sounding vocal in style.

Other gems include the folky Phoenix from Judee Sill’s songbook with a spare four-piece backing, highlighted by finger style guitar parts, and Brian Eno’s How Many Worlds on which Teddy Thompson lends a hand.

The album closes happily with a Richards’ collaboration on Merle Haggard’s Sing Me Back Home, a Gram Parsons favorite, that is understated, smooth and appropriate as the tag for this work.

Faithfull has carved her special niche in the pop/rock/jazz world and although this album doesn’t quite measure up to her last studio effort, 2005’s Before The Poison recorded partially in collaboration with PJ Harvey, it’s a nice addition to her catalogue.