2009 collaboration from Alt-Rock favorite PJ Harvey and producer/composer John Parish. The album was recorded in Bristol and Dorset, and mixed by Flood. A Woman A Man Walked By has been described by journalist John Harris as 'mischievous, deadly serious, elegant and poetic, and possessed of a brutal power: it is doubtful that you will hear a record as brimming with creative brio and musical invention this year'. A Woman A Man Walked By is the follow up to Harvey and Parish's previous collaboration Dance Hall At Louse Point. An accomplished producer and composer, John has recorded numerous soundtracks and has worked with artists including Eels and Giant Sand as well as Harvey. 10 tracks. Island.
Review
"....Now, nearly 13 years after their Dance Hall At Louse Point collaboration, the former bandmates have reunited for a highly satisfying hotchpotch of tracks."
"Impressive though these arrangements are, there's an even greater pleasure to be taken from Harvey's singing. In the company of her old colleague and confidant, she abandons herself to a diverse collection of vocal personae."
"Her best turn of all comes in "A Woman A Man Walked By..."
"It's testament to Harvey's current emotional range that she can complement these almost camp hatebombs with some plaintive heartbreakers too."
"Together, Parish and Harvey sound confidently experimental, like two soldiers daring each other to ever more stupendous feats of bravery. Here's hoping this exploration continues to feed back into the work she produces under her own name, and that Parish gets his dues as one of Britain's most resourceful and imaginative studio craftsmen." -- Uncut, March 09 - Rob Young 4 Stars
"So distinctive is Polly Harvey's talent that the idea of her working with other humans can be hard to grasp."
"The most intriguing songs here are reminiscent of White Chalk's table-rapping magic....."
"Only the guttural title track fails, too redolent of Patti Smith to startle..."
"After nearly two decades this man and this woman still turn heads." -- Mojo, March 09 - Victoria Segal 4 Stars
...the best song is the lustrous, unadorned ballad Moon and Moon..
...a meaty buffet of elemental folk, college rock, filthy nursery rhymes and theatrical blues... you know there's always something electrifying to come.
...Death still stalks the halls, but the best songs go off topic: the yearning, Pavement-ish Black Hearted Love, the organ-bleeding April. The Chair concludes a baffling two minutes of musical chairs by stopping short to deliver a heartbreaking coda that forces you to play it again.....Always the unexpected - it's a fine summation of her entire career. -- The Word, April 09 - Damien Morris
A Woman A Man Walked By deploys a broader textural armoury, but no less intensity....
Parish's turbulent tapestries channel everything from volatile folkery (Sixteen, Fifteen, Fourteen), to the tricksily time-signatured space-jazz of The Chair and The Crow Knows Where All The Little Children Go. The latter is instrumental, though admirers of Harvey's lyrical morbidity will feel sated overall...
While this record might ultimately be a mere palette cleanser for the next stage in PJ Harvey's journey, it suggests her mouthwash tastes sweeter than most others' fine wine. -- Q Magazine, March 09 - Keith Cameron 4 Stars
The ever unpredictable PJ Harvey changes her colours again....the results are playfully kaleidoscopic. -- Harpers Bazaar, April 09