RECOMMENDED ALBUM: PJ Harvey & John Parish - A Woman A Man Walked By

PJ Harvey & John Parish: A Woman A Man Walked By
Island Records
Available now

1. "Black Hearted Love" – 4:40
2. "Sixteen, Fifteen, Fourteen" – 3:35
3. "Leaving California" – 3:56
4. "The Chair" – 2:29
5. "April" – 4:41
6. "A Woman a Man Walked By/The Crow Knows Where All the Little Children Go" – 4:47
7. "The Soldier" – 3:55
8. "Pig Will Not" – 3:50
9. "Passionless, Pointless" – 4:19
10. "Cracks in the Canvas" – 1:54

The follow-up to 1996's similarly challenging 'Dance Hall At Louse Point' is by turns poignant and confrontational. Once again, John Parish has crafted a diverse and unusual array of musical backdrops over which Polly's vocal performances are more cutting than any of her work since the mid 90's.

While the opening track (and lead single) 'Black Hearted Love' is fairly standard of the rockier tracks in the PJ Harvey oeuvre, the album develops into something of a theatrical psycho-drama with recurring characters and themes - drowning, grief and defiance. 'Pig Will Not' takes Baudelaire's 'The Rebel' to new extremes. There's more to say, but an album like this, full of twists, strange turns of phrase and thoroughly absorbing characterization is best experienced first-hand. A high point in a consistently creative artist's career.