"Shame is the shadow of love..." keens PJ Harvey on the third single from Uh Huh Her. It may be less than two and a half minutes long, but she manages to pack a lot of despair into a short time.
"I jumped for you into the fire / I jumped for you into the flame / tried to go forward with my life / but just feel shame, shame, shame..." Her voice is at its best - clear, high, at times almost hysterical, and sounding remarkably like Joni Mitchell - and the grubby, slightly abrasive guitar and downbeat harmonica complement the bleakness of this slice of obsessive love.
One hopes the song doesn't reflect her present love-life, but if it does, the one consolation is it's producing some heartbreaking music.
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