Track Listing

1. Black Hearted Love - PJ Harvey, John Parish, Carla Azar, Eric Drew Feldman, Giovanni Ferrario, Flood, Catherine Marks, Andrew Savours, Ali Chant, John Dent
2. Sixteen, Fifteen, Fourteen
3. Leaving California
4. The Chair
5. April - PJ Harvey, John Parish, Flood, Catherine Marks, Andrew Savours, Carla Azar, Eric Drew Feldman, Giovanni Ferrario, Ali Chant, John Dent
6. A Woman A Man Walked By / The Crow Knows Where All The Little Children Go
7. The Soldier
8. Pig Will Not
9. Passionless, Pointless
10. Cracks In The Canvas

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2230 in Music
• Released on: 2009-03-30
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 38 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Polly Jean Harvey and John Parish have been collaborating for two decades now, making A Woman A Man Walked By the latest in a long series of intriguing records. Billed as a follow-up to 1996’s similarly credited Dance Hall at Louse Point, this excellent set fits naturally alongside their previous works. This time though Parish wrote all, and played most of the music, while Harvey took vocals and lyrics. And though Parish’s own solo offerings have tended towards contemporary classicism, this set displays veers from blues-rock to the bleakest of folk music. The opening track "Black Hearted Love", built around an irresistible loping guitar riff, could easily fit on one of Josh Homme’s Desert Sessions while "Sixteen, Fifteen, Fourteen" evokes an unexpectedly sinister English pastoral scene. The delightfully gloomy "April" marries a leaden drumbeat to a stately organ line, "Pig Will Not" clatters in the best Beefheartian tradition, while the title track, a Tourettic bluesy rant, slips into a chaotic instrumental obtusely titled "The Crow Knows Where All The Little Children Go". The sound of a Gold Rush-era piano player looms throughout, especially effective on the broken folk ballad "Leaving California". Deliberately unshowy and continually unpredictable, A Woman A Man Walked By is another fine Harvey and Parish album. --Steve Jelbert

CD Description
A Woman A Man Walked By is a new collaboration from PJ Harvey and John Parish, the follow up to Harvey and Parish’s previous collaboration Dance Hall at Louse Point (1996). An accomplished producer and composer, John Parish has recorded numerous soundtracks and has worked with artists including Eels and Giant Sand, and co-produced To Bring You My Love (1995) and also PJ Harvey’s most recent release White Chalk (2007). Features the single "Black Hearted Love".

Customer Reviews

Fantastic Career Striding Album
A Woman A Man Walked By is fantastic. You have the guitar stompers "Blacked Hearted Love", the frenzied "16,15,14" and "The Chair", the piano laden ethereal tracks "The Soldier" and "Leaving California" and the achingly beautiful "April" and "Passionless Pointless". Each song takes from a section of PJ's career while maintaining a new identity (grungy banjo!). For those waiting for screaming madness I highly recommend "Pig Will Not" and the title track for maximum impact but there's no poor track on the album. Well done PJ and John.

ETHEREAL WITH FIRE.
'Dance hall at Louse point' is perhaps one of my favourite albums of Polly's! It's a dark-horse album which the fans may have overlooked, so in the light of this, i was really excited to learn of a new album with John Parish called 'A Woman a Man Walked By'!
Polly has racked up so many albums with so many feelings and emotions that i was interested to see which route I would be taken this time!
With John Parish providing the music Polly has written some of her best and most expressive lyrics to date, combine this with her many personas which she adopts on practically every track and you have an amazing album!
Polly's albums have always been musical alchemy for me, give each song time and it becomes precious to you! This album needs a few listens, with the listener in different moods, to really come alive!
All of Polly's work has a door which you have to really push against for it to open, but once inside the room is beautiful, vicious, angry, delicate and ethereal.
This album is yet another great work from Polly & John and will sit well with "most" fans who want some grit back after the dream world of 'White Chalk'.
Recommended, in fact essential.

Something different
Each track provides a different view and style, this shows true genius - can PJ Harvey go wrong? Each album peels back a layer, I really can't fault one album - each is a new side and never a repeat from previous creations.

From this album I particularly like "Black Hearted Love" and "A Woman A Man Walked By / The Crow Knows Where All The Little Children Go", particularly the latter whcih is raw, experimental and if playing in your car makes you turn down the volume if you have your window open with a little polite society guilt. I'm sure with time other tracks will bolt on to my favourites. This is a true test of a good album, continual listens unveil new treasures - you have to work at it to reap the rewards.