PJ Harvey/John Parish -- A Woman A Man Walked By

New album don't ya know.

The album is due to be release on the 30th of March and is the first time Harvey and Parish have teamed up since 1996’s Dance Hall At Louse Point.

The track listing is as follows:

'Black Hearted Love'
'Sixteen, Fifteen, Fourteen'
'Leaving California'
'The Chair'
'April'
'A Woman A Man Walked By' / 'The Crow Knows Where All The Little Children Go'
'The Soldier'
'Pig Will Not'
'Passionless, Pointless'
'Cracks In The Canvas'

looking forward to it -- though these two have certainly played together since 1996, right? isn't he on a couple of the last few records? maybe they just mean they haven't made a "duo" record since then ... anyway!

I think he's done production work on her last few records more often than not... correct?

http://www.postimage.org/Pq2GeRHi-a1fb47c120f282c1291735c04bc2f7ad.jpg

Really like the single:
http://www.nme.com/video?bcpid=1659851007&bclid=1755457108&bctid=16923434001

Shit sounded fantastic at SXSW a few days ago.

THERE IS NO LAUGHTER IN THE GARDEN

http://www.last.fm/music/John+Parish+and+Polly+Jean+Harvey/A+Woman+A+Man+Walked+By

A few songs, in full.

LA Weekly interview with both of 'em.

yow, "Black Hearted Love" is great. Video is great, too.

wow new songs are great

Sixteen, Fifteen, Fourteen (live)

I love this performance.

From the LA Weekly interview:

Did you see any music while you were in Austin?

PJH: I only saw one thing, and that was Echo and the Bunnymen, and I thought they were fantastic. It was so wonderful to see a band that's been going for that long, and still, I felt, actually inhabiting themselves and what they do with great respect and dignity.

Yeah, and that's gotta be hard to do at some point when the expectations on you are to play certain specific songs - to actually expand those songs.

PJH: I liked that they were playing new material, and they were also breaking down all their songs into a way that seemed to fit with what they were doing with the new material. Really, really wonderful show.

Fantastic show. And I saw PJ there, as she mentions. :)

Cool story...a friend of mine works for a Broadway theater. Right now they're dong Hedda Gabler, and PJ Harvey did the music for the show. My friend got to spend some time with her for a week or so when she was in NY setting it up. She was expecting someone dark, brooding & moody, which is natural based on her music. But apparently she's the total opposite, super friendly, laid back and warm. Just the nicest person imaginable.

On first listen this might be my favourite PJ Harvey album this decade. I love the way she's seemingly playing with persona and the dramatic potential of her voice more than ever - Eastern quartertones on The Chair, croaky old lady on April, lascivious Nick Cave impersonations on the title track, outright batshit screaming defiance on Pig Will Not.

I'm going to be spending a lot of time with this record in the near future.

i like the soldier but i'm not so crazy bout the rest of the album.

lol kornrulez6969 i know your friend's boss.

Must must must make it into town today to buy lemons, garlic, and this.

She was expecting someone dark, brooding & moody, which is natural based on her music. But apparently she's the total opposite, super friendly, laid back and warm.

I have heard variants of this story any number of times.

Uh Huh Her got me thinking that I had enough PJH music.

You obviously didn't hear her masterpiece, White Chalk, then... you poor soul.

The song on the You Tube clip above sounded really compelling. I wanted to play it again right after it was over.

Bought this at lunchtime. No CD in the case. Argh!

There's a couple of live videos and an interview of the BBC 6 Music site:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/events/hub/artists/pjharvey_parish.shtml

I've never liked her art song chansonniere mode, and Parish's melodies simply aren't as good as hers.

Bought this at lunchtime. No CD in the case. Argh!

A warning sign?

fate.

protest against illegal downloading

art statement

You obviously didn't hear her masterpiece, White Chalk, then... you poor soul.

no guitar, no credibility. It sounded too much like a lovely record.

It sounded too much like a lovely record.

Lovely is the last word I'd use to describe it. After the first spin, I needed a new pair of undies.

Yeah, not lovely at all. Harrowing? Yes.

I'm very glad of the instrumental and tonal variations in this after the consistency of pace and tone on White Chalk, which was still very, very spooky and creepy nonetheless, but which i didn't want to play for the sheer joy of listening to much at all. This might be the best thing she's done this decade. Mad to think she's been releasing records for 18 years now, more than half my life.

2 minutes fifty or so into April when she ramps it up a little with the vocals; fucking wow. There aren't many people who can make me feel like that.

Got it today. I like this a whole lot.

Dance Hall at Louse Point is still better, though.

Is she actually barking like a dog on Pig Will Not or does it just sound like that?

I think she is indeed barking like a dog.

i can't stand that song.

i heard a nice version of leaving california on the all songs considered sxsw wrap up podcast. better than the album, imo.

upon relistening, i still only like about 3 songs. and the album just doesn't flow for me.

The album's on Spotify btw.
http://open.spotify.com/album/123EB4NCe2uZDODjkBo1bh

Really good this.

This makes no sense.

Half this album is a great pleasure to listen to and half is well, just unpleasant.

But which bit is which changes every time I've listened to it.

I've mainly been listening in the car and so I've mainly listened to it straight with no shuffling or skipping - yet the urge to do so has been great, if I was listening in any other medium I would be doing so.

Yeah there's a lot going on, I think I know exactly what you mean. But since it's PJ Harvey and John Parish, I'm going to blame myself for being in the wrong mood or not paying close enough attention before I blame them. I have listened to the whole thing three times, and there's gold everywhere.

I really don't think you'd get much out of listening to this in the car; the production is very delicate and natural, in a car you're going to be missing all sorts of things in the songs.

Headphone record.

i liked it better through phones than out loud in my house, but i still think it's spotty at best. why should i blame myself for not liking something just because of who made it?

I totally agree. Not feeling this at all. Half is very good, half is kinda meh, which is a real shame. Headphones won´t salvage that I´m afraid.

Are people agreeing on the quality splits in this? i.e. does everyone think the same tracks are weak?

Played this album once through today and some of the songs grated on my nerves, but others were really neato. I thought it was interesting the way two songs actually reminded me of The Fall - "Pig Will Not" and "Sixteen, Fifteen, Fourteen". Another two songs impressed me with their sonic beauty - "The Chair" & "Passionless, Pointless". So yeah, I'm not totally happy with this record or White Chalk, but because I seem to be gravitating towards Harvey right now, I think I'm just gonna pick and choose my faves from these records and play what I like.

"April" is unbearable to my ears, but "A Woman A Man Walked By" makes the hairs on my arms stand on end. Jesus, that's good shit.

PIG.

WILL.

NOT.

BLACK HEARTED LOVE

The first track is the weakest I think, I'm not sure if such a thing as PJ Harvey by numbers exists, but if it does that's probably it.

I bet the title track to this scares the living shit out of normal homophobe dudes.

By the way, Matt DC...since you're online, now, I wanted to ask what you thought was so offensive about what I posted on the prostitution thread? The question that thread asked was if you had ever been, or been with a prostitute, and I answered the question pretty simply and succintly and I don't understand why you thought that was so gross. With all due respect.

Bimble, out of curiosity, do you work? If so, your job allows you a remarkable amount of freedom to listen to music all day.

Well yes it does, Alfred, although I don't actually take advantage of all the time it allows me. I listen on the bus sometimes.

I can listen to music pretty much all day at work if I want to. (I don't always want to.)

I'm in the same boat.

So can I. It's fairly common for that to be the case.

Same here, own office and all. Simplify Media connects my work Mac to my home PC, which has all the music on it. Works like a charm! (the new PJ Harvey on the other hand...)

I was asleep, and then all of a sudden I awoke and I heard "Black Hearted Love" in my ears so loud as if I was actually hearing it. And then I got out of bed to realize it's 6 AM and remembered I broke my headphones last night and there is no goddamn justice in this world and as soon as the store opens (in what, 4 hours??) I am going to buy 5 pairs of fucking headphones if it kills me. I am going to stockpile headphones because this is like the 3rd or 4th fucking time this has happened to me and even my friend, even him - he took my other pair of headphones because I didn't like them and told him he could have them and oh my god. No justice in this world.

THERE IS NO LAUGHTER IN THE GARDEN

― Turangalila, Wednesday, March 25, 2009 7:30 AM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark

gooseflesh from this song

Hell yes Bimble now we're on the same page.

I just bought a ticket to see them live. Bimble = happy camper

Well, the concert is coming up on Tuesday so I gave this album another full run-through on the bus today and I gotta say I liked it more than I did last time! So much variety! Some of it absolutely stunned me, made me swoon and all that. I'm really excited. I've never actually heard their earlier album before this one (she was way off my radar by 1996), but I aim to correct that very soon. David Schmader wrote in our local rag The Stranger
this week that "A Woman a Man Walked By is the big, juicy PJ Harvey album fans have been waiting for since Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea" and I must say that is exactly how I feel, not that I was some huge fan of her though - not since Rid of Me anyway. And I understand that White Chalk might be just the thing for some folks, but as an album, I much prefer this one.

every pin prick of guilt

guys, i'm listening to this for the first time.

Yr thoughts?

loving it. except uh, the title track came on and i don't think the office was ready for it

is "black hearted love" a top ten pj song? it didn't even make top 50 in her artist poll here.

I like it well enough, and she seems to as well because it was occasionally played the last tour, but I think lyrically it's a bit too on the nose for her.

it's the catchiest squalling feedback i've ever heard.