In 1996 PJ Harvey collaborated with friend John Parish to release
Dance Hall At Louse Point—songs with Parish providing the
music and Harvey the lyrics and vocals. It was a discordant,
occasionally vicious record—a side-project that fit nicely into
Harvey’s body of work. This new album has the same division of labour,
but is a little sweeter, with Harvey’s White Chalk-esque, weedy
falsetto featured on a couple of tracks. Fans of the singer’s angrier
material will lap up the title track and its “I want your fucking ass”
refrain, the first single “Black Hearted Love” and the loopy,
compulsive “Sixteen, Fifteen, Fourteen.”
This article appears in May 7-13, 2009.