P.J. Harvey ★★★★ Uh Huh Her/Demos UMC/ISLAND. CD/DL/LP

Polly Harvey’s transitional sixth album.

Released four years after the glancing pop crossover of 2000’s Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea, Uh Huh

Her initially seemed like a sideways step. One of Polly Harvey’s working notes to herself read “too PJ H?” but there was a slight over-familiarity here, songs collating the brackish atmospheres of Is This Desire? (The Slow Drug), To

Bring You My Love’s swampy fables (No Child Of Mine), or

Rid Of Me’s army-booted rage (Who The Fuck?). Yet now, standing alone and accompanied by typically illuminating demos (in particular The Pocket Knife and a brutal Who The Fuck?), themes of romantic dysfunction and lingering despair (“shame is the shadow of love”) are clearly articulated against the title’s rock’n’roll mumble. A collection of great songs rather than a unified whole, Uh Huh Her still speaks volumes. Victoria Segal