We simply can’t let a blisteringly hot summer pass by without bringing a couple of slightly older releases back into the Eurorock consciousness.
Today we have the highly talented folk pop songstress Marie Modiano, and from the UK, PJ Harvey who, along with John Parish, released an excellent album earlier this year. It’s with this pairing that we start our round up today.
PJ Harvey & John Parish – A Woman A Man Walked By
When this album appeared earlier this year Blogcritics very own Glen Boyd concluded in his review that, "A Woman, A Man Walked By is, quite simply, a stunning record that displays PJ Harvey's talents as both a great vocalist and songwriter. It is, at this point, an early candidate for the best record that I have heard this year."
It is this statement, and of course, her remarkable back catalogue, that brings me to revive this album again at this particular point in time. Last time out White Chalk heralded something of a new direction for Polly Jean. Trimmed down to an altogether sparser sound, built around the piano, it highlighted her extraordinarily effective voice and characteristically poetic lyrics. It was an album that was universally well received.
She teams up again with John Parish for A Woman A Man Walked By. It was released in March 2009 on Island Records, and was mixed by Flood, the pseudonym of producer Mark Ellis who has worked with U2, Nick Cave, Depeche Mode, The Killers, Smashing Pumpkins, Erasure, and many more.
The music is courtesy of John Parish whilst the lyrics are from the often intense creativity that has become PJ Harvey’s trademark. The lead single, “Black Hearted Love” opens the album with a driving anthem which leads us into a subsequent maze of twists of turns.
The rest of the album is a heady intoxication of elegance, and darkness, whilst literally overflowing with imagination and extraordinary creativity. It takes us through the disturbing story of “The Chair”, the beauty of “Leaving California”, the unnerving “April, the unravelling of “Pig Will Not”, and the haunting “Cracks In The Canvass”.
On the latter she sings, "How do we cope with the days after a death, empty days, nothing left. Not even a funeral", above a simple keyboard. Then there is the poetry that is “The Soldier”, with its powerful lyrics dramatically set against a simple backing. The dark “Sixteen, Fifteen, Fourteen” is uncomfortable but irresistible. The title track itself draws you into a powerful web.
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