That Woman, Man…

A Woman A Man Walked By is out today, PJ Harvey’s eleventh album, and the second to be credited officially to PJ Harvey and John Parish.

I have to admit that while I’m intimately familiar with almost all of PJ’s other albums, somehow I never picked up the other with John Parish; Dance Hall At Louse Point. I gave it a few spins over the weekend to make sure that I wasn’t going to be comparing apples to bananas in my review.

As I suspected, overall, A Woman A Man Walked By is comparable more to the Louse Point era recordings than her more recent, more poppy albums. Leaving California features stratospheric vocal registers that take us back to that older stuff, similar, but not quite as shrieking, as Louse Point’s City Of No Sun. The former is a much more cohesive song though- and it’s much more… shall we say… accessible. As is the album as a whole. The production is much more mature, and there’s a fair share of upbeat rock songs.

Sixteen, Fifteen, Fourteen is a highlight for me personally, which sounds like something that might be found on one of the Queens Of The Stone Age’s Desert Sessions compilations; a simple jangly riff gives way to a perky, hooky chorus. Polly’s vocals remain minimally treated, with audible chuckles and micro-expressions adding energy to the track.

Lead single Black Hearted Love is another, though one valid criticism I could make is that it’s a little too late 90s for my taste; artistically, PJ has grown much since then, and in that sense, it’s a step back compared to her last few singles:

The Chair on the other hand, is an interesting deviation, with a trip-hop rhythm that could have come from Tricky’s studio.

At times, A Woman A Man Walked By finds Polly Jean at her most batshit crazy unhinged since 1993. Especially in the title track, where PJ grunts and growls like a possessed beast, screaming, among other things: That woman, man… I want his fucking ass!

I definitely would not want to ever have to break up with PJ Harvey. Pig Will Not is another crazy one… I think the titular pig is Polly Jean herself, and I’m not exactly sure what it is she’s talking about, but if you want her to do it, you’re going to have to ask her yourself.

A Woman A Man Walked By
Island
March 31st, 2009

1. Black Hearted Love
2. Sixteen, Fifteen, Fourteen
3. Leaving California
4. The Chair
5. April
6. A Woman A Man Walked By /
The Crow Knows Where All The Little Children Go
7. The Soldier
8. Pig Will Not
9. Passionless, Pointless
10. Cracks In The Canvas