If the ambient sounds on Is This Desire? befitted an album with a question for a title, the crisp sounds on Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea are definitive for an album of answers, answers to nothing except to affirm that Harvey has something to declare. So while last time she asked if this was desire, this time she has a song title that directly states "This Is Love" while the song oozes desire from beginning to end. Even guest vocalist Thom Yorke (Radiohead), he of the tortured vocal, sounds sure of himself here. Ambivalence and ambience can be fascinating; confidence can be exhilarating --Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea is nothing less. The rocking songs mention the city, the slower songs mention the world, while each one propelled by a rhythm that is sometimes slow but always going places, usually with a churning guitar sound I believe to be of her own making. Harvey's extraordinary vocals take command throughout. In "Kamikaze" she sings "build an army to come and find me" and it sounds like a taunt. "The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore" ends with a sympathetic wail. "Beautiful Feeling" is exactly that.

Harvey is unafraid of risks, and we are the beneficiaries of the chances she takes. The lyric "We'll float/Take life as it comes" would sound trite in almost anyone else's song. Yet when these lines are sung in the final song the moment is incandescent; Harvey is convincing because she is sure of herself. Nothing and no one can touch her.

An artist in complete control is a beautiful thing.