Her least vital work remains challenging, provocative and worthy of repeated listens. Let me restate this: PJ Harvey has never released a bad album. Not quite committing in either direction, it winds up being PJ Harvey’s most tentative and uneven work. “The Soldier,” a wartime dream set to toylike piano twinkles, points the way to Let England Shake, though the puzzle pieces are just coming into focus. The title track’s menacing swagger is a nice change of pace, but it quickly fizzles into a directionless instrumental glop of organs and piano.Ī Woman A Man Walked By feels caught awkwardly between the fury and hellfire of Harvey’s early work (“Pig Will Not” features our heroine barking like a dog) and the mournful air of White Chalk (“Cracks In The Canvas,” “April”). Then Harvey tries on an irritating vocal affectation that brings White Chalk’s old-lady vibe to an ill-advised extreme (“April”). From there, things slide into decent but undercooked avant-folk (“Sixteen, Fifteen, Fourteen,” “Leaving California”). As an opener, it’s both brilliant and bewildering - nothing else on this album matches it or even slightly resembles it. Compared with Dance Hall, these songs feel kind of limp.Ī big part of this record’s disappointment is that it starts so strong: “ Black Hearted Love” is a fabulous, dark-edged rocker that could have fit on Side A of Stories From The City. And like Dance Hall, A Woman A Man Walked By was largely overshadowed by an acclaimed solo album released only a year and a half prior (in this instance, White Chalk).

Once again, the partnership brings Harvey further into the avant-garde realm than usual. Once again, Parish handles the music and Harvey the lyrics and vocals. This is her second collaborative album with John Parish, 13 years after the underrated Dance Hall At Louse Point. PJ Harvey has made one muddled, mediocre album, though, and it’s called A Woman A Man Walked By. Anybody who tells you otherwise is not your friend.

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