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

The bare facts, to start with. A Woman A Man Walked By is the second album co-written and jointly performed by Polly Jean Harvey and John Parish, and comes over 12 years after 1996's Dance Hall At Louse Point. It was initially recorded at Parish and Harvey's homes - and later, at a studio in Bristol where it was assisted by the contributions of three other musicians. Some of it is quiet, considered and reflective; at other moments, it verges on the deranged. By turns, it is mischievous, deadly serious, elegant and poetic, and possessed of a brutal power - and it is doubtful that you will hear a record as brimming with creative brio and musical invention this year.

As with just about all the records that have featured its authors' names either together or apart, it is based on one insight above all others: that repetition and comfy formulas are always to be avoided. So, though you can draw lines between this record and Dance Hall At Louse Point, there are occasions when you'd assume you were listening to the work of different people.

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