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Stories' songs are set in Brooklyn, Little Italy and the Empire State Building, but Harvey wants it made clear that this is not The New York Album. ("Half of it was written in other places, and, I don't know, The New York Album just sounds so..." Horribly pretentious? "Oh, yes!") She's also confounded by lingering comparisons to Patti Smith, which were complimentary earlier in her career but now seem a bit confining. "I guess we do have a passion about the way we deliver and the nature of the things we're singing about. They're quite strong subjects sung in a strong way, so I can see comparisons there. And obviously Patti has lived in New York, so there's this New York thing now too. But she wasn't someone I was trying to emulate in any way on this record." Indeed, Smith, with the exception of a few brilliant songs, has clung mostly to her cult. PJ Harvey is ready for a wider embrace.
--By Josh Tyrangiel