White Chalk (2007)

Polly Jean Harvey has always been a bit of a rock & roll Sybil — manifesting alter egos from the howling blues banshee of 1993's Rid of Me to the torchy seductress of 2000's Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea. On the largely piano-based White Chalk, she retreats into an odd little-girl-lost persona, singing almost entirely in a tremulous higher key that strangles the most powerful instrument in her arsenal: that voice. True, it's a woman's prerogative to change — we just wish she had chosen a more expressive path. C
DOWNLOAD THIS: Hear a clip of ''White Chalk'' at Barnes & Noble.com