PJ Harvey & John Parish Dust Off "Black Hearted Love" For Letterman

The longtime collaborators delivered the dark, slinky, windswept A Woman A Man Walked opener to Jay Leno two and a half months ago, but that doesn't stop Letterman from jokily analyzing the "evocative ... mysterious" album title as "a chapter out of my life story," finding the rendition of the song "very satisfying," and suavely addressing the ever shoeless Harvey by her given name ("Polly, how are you?"). She's backed by the talented M. Gira triplets and a drummer.

A Woman A Man Walked By is out via Island. They should likely start playing another song from it soon.

Posted at 10:25 AM by brandon in Video
Tags: David Letterman | John Parish | PJ Harvey

8 Comments

Repeat performance or not, I'm with Dave on this one - that was great :)

Posted by: Hit the Switch at 06/15/09 10:59 AM  | Reply
Score = 2

I heart PJ Harvey. She cleans up real nice too.

Posted by: Dale Cruse at 06/15/09 11:09 AM  | Reply
Score = 2

Love this. We interviewed Parish last week about his friendship with PJ; pretty interesting stuff: http://flavorwire.com/24849/john-parish-pj-harvey-together-man-walked-b

Posted by: Caroline at 06/15/09 11:40 AM  | Reply
Score = -2

This sounds like 1993 all over again, but in a very good way.

Posted by: Deezey at 06/15/09 12:21 PM  | Reply
Score = 3

Is there another woman who is even in the same league as PJ? I think not. It almost seems unfair that she has so much talent and is as beautiful as she is.

Posted by: jjazznola at 06/15/09 12:41 PM  | Reply
Score = 0

Boring, Sidney, extremely boring. Boring beat, mailed-in guitar "riff," no catchy vocal hook. I'm not even sure what "mood" they're going for, other than some sort of vaguely ominous "dark love" vibe. Snoozorama.

Posted by: Admittedly Drowsy at 06/15/09 12:52 PM  | Reply
Score = -10

I have to agree on this one. I clicked with excitement, hoping that the live version might give the song some verve missing from the studio version. Nope -- the guitar riff is DOA, and the whole thing just seems to plod along.

@jjazznola: Obviously she's talented, but I think you're being a tad hyperbolic on that note. I can think of three women (living) who I would argue have brought it more consistently than PJ Harvey (though she definitely gains additional points for doing it over such a long period of time).

Posted by: Steve  in reply to Admittedly Drowsy's comment at 06/15/09 1:55 PM  | Reply
Score = -1

A Man A Woman walks away is PJ's worst album.

Sounds like White Chalk rejects, mixed with plodding 90's alterna-rock with PJ trying to out PJ herself (see: the barking!!!).

Posted by: marktron at 06/15/09 5:36 PM  | Reply
Score = -1