The last time PJ Harvey and John Parish both made a record together, Dance Hall at Louse Point, 13 years ago, the results were mixed. With Parish's twisted, experimental circus freak musical arrangements, Harvey seemed to have her back to the wall, unable to find her voice - she sort of whispered, moaned and occasionally wailed her buried lyrics over the music - or her footing in the muddle that was Dance Hall. Fast-forward to 2009 and Harvey and Parish are back again - this time as equal collaborators - with A Woman A Man Walked By.

Make no mistake though, John Parish's fascination with the circus has not diminished, nor does PJ Harvey fail to deliver her favorite cocktail of misguided souls and sexual innuendo, but the fact is that both of them seem to have their demons under control. Well, almost.

The album kicks off with 'Black Hearted Love'. (Also the first single) A wonderful twisted; mid-tempo love song with twin guitars chugging along intertwined rhythms. The fantastic hook of the song is the pregnant pause Harvey takes before every verse. The lyrics are sinister with hints of stalking, "I think I saw you in the shadows/I move in closer beneath your windows" and masochism, "When you call out my name in rapture/ I volunteer my soul for murder".

'Sixteen, Fifteen, Fourteen' is a bastard child of an old English folk song, reminiscent of how Led Zeppelin used to play them. With strumming mandolins riffs, an old drum and hand claps, Harvey plays hide and seek with her anguished, breathless voice slipping in lines like "The sun is singing the seas/in a god I am started to wean/ the trees are a trampoline" till open hi-hats, slide guitars and funeral organs make up for empty spaces in the song.

'Leaving California' is a beautiful, otherworldly track, with Harvey singing a tale of regret and sadness in a high-pitched voice over a music arrangement of barroom piano and out-of-tune guitars drenched in reverb.
'The Chair' is an uneasy mixture of Middle Eastern influences in Harvey's singing, a jerky drumbeat right out of KID A, and a mess of xylophones, guitars and keys that refuse to quit. Perhaps the weakest cut on the album.

The frenetic mood set by 'The Chair' is shattered abruptly by the brooding 'April'. Harvey's best vocal - her voice sounds like it's been sliced open by glass - evocative of such sadness, yet with such murky lyrics. The sparse instrumentation fits like a glove, a funeral organ and almost tired-sounding percussion
The title track is a manic wonder. With the song starting off with a scratchy guitar and Harvey remembering a rather 'unique' friend who has "chicken liver parts" in her English accent, we are somewhere in loony Robyn Hitchcock land. The song cascades into a hellish demented ritual, invoking Captain Beef heart's soul circa 'Trout Mask Replica'. Harvey growls and howls with demented glee, "My my you little toy/ You're just a mummy's boy/ Where's your liver? Where's your heart?" as the band delivers a heady concoction of pounding tribal drums, guitars, moog synthesizers and strings. 'A Woman A Man Walked By' ends as quickly as it starts and segues into 'The Crow Knows Where All The Little Children Go' which is a kitchen-sink instrumental that sounds like a mixture of south American marimba music and jazz out of hell. Take your pick.

'The Soldiers' is a poignant elegy to war-weary soldiers. Made out of a left-over mandolin and ghostly piano keys, Harvey in a childlike voice sings of psychoanalysis and insomnia, "Every pinprick of guilt I have felt/That I have felt/Send me home restless/Send me home dummy".

'Pigs will not' is a raw, visceral show of dynamics, crushing guitars and huge backbeat find PJ Harvey with a wicked sense of humor, spitting out lyrics with lines like "true love is what we're doing now."
A Woman A Man Walked By is perhaps not the first album to start of a PJ Harvey collection, but if your music fix is listening to equal measures of quiet, considered and reflective songs inter-cut by deranged, mischievous and sheer brutal pieces, It is doubtful that you will find anything like A Woman A Man Walked By this year.