I don’t know about you, but when a big name releases a new album, I always feel a bit scared to be disappointed. Sometimes I am disappointed, like it was the case with the last U2 or Rolling Stones, sometimes I am relieved because it’s not that bad, like it was the case with the last Bob Dylan or Paul McCartney, but I am rarely amazed. Exceptions include 'In Rainbows' by Radiohead, 'Third' by Portishead and the album PJ Harvey released today.
Pitchfork reviewed it severely, but they’re way off base. As for me, ‘A Woman A Man Walks By’ officially joins the run to the best album of the year with ‘Merriweather Post Pavillion’, ‘It’s Blitz’ and ‘Fever Ray’. The album is written in collaboration with a guy named John Parish. He’s kind of a nobody, but his contribution on this one is very important, in that he wrote the music while she wrote the lyrics. However, it’s probably a lot easier to make good music when you have someone like PJ Harvey as a performer, right?
The song you can download today is not for sensitive ears. It’s a real rocker that comes directly from the ashes of the 90s. For the most part, she's repeating the affirmation ‘I Will Not’. It’s not like she doesn’t want to do something or think something or feel something, it’s just a pure refusal of nothing… or maybe of everything. At the end, the volume of the instruments gets down dramatically, and a beautiful piano gets played over it. That's music how I like it.
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