Legendary DJ John Peel wrote the first ever review of a PJ Harvey song, “Dress”, in 1992: “Admirable, if not always enjoyable.” For a decade, the label stuck, at least in part thanks to Polly Jean’s own insistence on reaching for Big Themes while screeching over blues guitar feedback. But Stories resolves almost everything about her career—the battle between rough blues and sweet rock melodies, between demons and bright days—over the course of 45 minutes, and without a single dud track. On the roaring opener “Big Exit” she feels immortal and makes you believe she might be. “You Said Something” hovers gorgeously over Manhattan. Even a duet with Radiohead’s Thom Yorke can’t drag her back into paranoia. One of modern music’s great artists at the very peak of her abilities.