Polly Jean Harvey and John Parish
Dance Hall at Louse Point, Island
from TapOnline.com

Attention! Attention! This is not the new PJ Harvey album. But you should still buy it, even if it's only 40 minutes long.

One of Britain's brightest acts this decade has been Polly Jean, or PJ, Harvey. Her last two albums, Rid of Me and To Bring You My Love, were critically acclaimed and instantly she became the darling of "alternative" rock. The reason is simple. The tiny lass from Somerset, England packs one damn powerful, soulful, and bluesy voice.

Her latest album isn't exactly hers, but rather a collaboration with John Parish. Parish, a member and producer of PJ Harvey the band, is also the frontman of Automatic Dlamini (which Harvey was once a member of) and wrote all of the music; Harvey wrote the lyrics. The album has 11 new songs as well as a cover of the Peggy Lee standard Is That All There Is? Mick Harvey from Nick Cave's Bad Seeds helps out on Heela.

Following a brief instrumental, Girl, reminiscent of any Ry Cooder offering, Rope Bridge Crossing has Harvey's voice all over the place. Her style is symbolized by the lyrics in this song and the entire album. She sings, "You move like music/You move me like music." Only a few have such a diverse range and pitch, but she's one of them.

Heela is the best track on the album, with Harvey's voice over a simple bass groove and a rough riff. Is That All There Is? is delivered in the same slow, morbid, depressing tone Hank Williams became famous for. It's rounded out with organ, bass, and a pinch of guitar.

Her style is a kind of wrong side of the tracks Sarah McLachlan. Both are very powerful lyrically and musically, but Harvey's music is a bit more darker and gloomier. For example, on Taut, she transforms her voice from resembling a schoolgirl in a church choir to a raving lunatic needing valium. "He drove me out of my mind/But I'm over it now," she describes with a faint laugh.

Parish's work provides a great background but at times is the driving force of the two, especially in Civil War Correspondent and the other instrumental, the title track. Some of the harder, crunchier, radio friendly songs come with typical song titles -- Urn With Dead Flowers In A Drained Pool, Lost Fun Zone, and Un Cercle Autour Le Soleil.

The first single, That Was My Veil, is girl meets guy, girl about to marry guy, guy drops her for another girl. "I'd never thought you'd leave/That was my veil/That was my time," she explains in a sort of haze.

One thing you notice after listening to the album is that there's a certain controlled tension in every track -- you never know when or if it's going to break open into guitars wailing, her banshee-like screams, or a warped combination of the two.

You probably won't have a chance to see her, er them, do these songs live because she and Parish are only doing four shows in England supporting the album. But with a new PJ Harvey album already in the works for next year, you won't have that much of a wait.

--Jason MacNeil

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