PJ Harvey & John Parish - A Woman A Man Walked By
by Dan MacIntosh
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For this set of new songs, PJ Harvey wrote the lyrics while John Parish provided the music. Parish gives Harvey a wide variety of instrumental textures to match her voice to, but PJ is always center stage – no matter what stage she happens to be on. She's also a strangely beautiful performer.
Harvey continues to add many new voices to her repertoire already well-stocked repertoire. She began is an angry (crazy?) young woman, but that's only one of personas these days. She sounds like Siouxsie Sioux on "Sixteen, Fifteen, Fourteen", where she caterwauls most the way through it. She also brings a bit of Sioux's vocal mysticism to "The Chair". Yet on "Leaving California", Harvey sings in a high, beatific voice – as though she's always been pearly white and never once touched dirt. "April", in sharp contrast, finds Harvey emoting like an old lady; obviously old before her age.
A few of these tracks bring Led Zeppelin to mind, namely "Black Hearted Love" and "The Chair". Each of these recordings features what sounds like Middle Eastern rock. "The Soldier" also stands out, due to its minimal ukulele and piano accompaniment.
Lyrically, Harvey is like the female Nick Cave, who is a man – not surprisingly – she's also collaborated with. And like Cave, she can be brutally morbid. "The Chair", for instance, centers on the chair where a woman's young son always sat. That is, of course, before he drowned to death. "My heart slowed," she recalls, "Never to pick up again."
The old, angry Harvey comes bursting through during "A Woman A Man Walked By/The Crow Knows Where All The Little Children Go". "I want your fucking ass," she commands. And you best believe this girl gets what she demands.
There's a lot of variety on this disc, both musically and lyrically. Harvey is consistently fine, as always, but Parish and his huge bag of varying musical tricks helps push his collaborator to new artistic heights.
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PJ Harvey & John Parish - A Woman A Man Walked By
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