ALBUM REVIEW: PJ Harvey and John Parish, A Woman A Man Walked By

It’s been 12 years since Polly Jean Harvey and producer and multi-instrumentalist John Parish collaborated on their last album, Dance Hall at Louse Point.

‘A Woman a Man Walked By’ is Harvey and Parish's second collaborative album as a duo and it's just as weirdly insane, as their first. Harvey herself described the album as “quite a peculiar little record".

The album sees Parish responsible for the bulk of the music and arrangements while Harvey pens the lyrics and sings.

The driving alt-rock guitars of ‘Black Hearted Love’ and ‘Pig Will Not’, hark back to Harvey's early days, whereas, ‘Sixteen, Fifteen, Fourteen’, and ‘The Soldier’ draw upon the English folk tradition.

Harvey's vocal style ranges from the helium weirdness first heard on ‘Legs’ to a the animalistic rambling narrative of ‘Pig Will Not’.

Its Parish’s music, that provides the real experiments on the album. Fluctuating between alternative rock on ‘Black Hearted Love’, to American Gothic ‘Sixteen, Fifteen, Fourteen’, to ethereal ‘Passionless, Pointless’, carry Harvey throughout.

Track listing:

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