Marianne Faithfull has had more than her share of musical relationships.

Indeed, over the past 40 years, the decadent diva with the carton-a-day voice has collaborated with everyone from Mick and Keef to Beck and Billy Corgan.

But seldom has she found such perfectly kindred spirits as PJ Harvey and Nick Cave, her partners-in-crime on her umpteenth album Before the Poison.

Between the two of them, they co-wrote and played on most of the 10 songs on this dark jewel of a disc, and without exception the results are rich, resonant, moody and mesmerizing.

PJ contributes a handful of her strummy, anxious laments to love and obsession, including No Child of Mine, from her recent Uh-Huh Her album. Cave, aided by a few of his Bad Seeds, supplies a trio of his mournful murder ballads and one unhinged rocker with guitars that scrape the inside of your skull. Jon Brion and Blur's Damon Albarn round out the set with a pair of tracks, but they can't come between Faithfull and her two young devotees.

Call theirs a menage a trois made in heaven. Or better yet, hell.

Track Listing:

1. The Mystery Of Love
2. My Friends Have
3. Crazy Love
4. Last Song
5. No Child Of Mine
6. Before The Poison
7. There Is A Ghost
8. In The Factory
9. Desperanto
10. City Of Quartz