A FEW years ago, uncompromising West Country art-rock icon Polly Harvey looked set to win over the mainstream, after years of cult success stretching back to her precocious early 1990s debut Dry.

Her award-winning Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea album saw her calm down her anguished bluesy wail and focus her remarkable songwriting into a more straightforward rock template.

However, the mainstream remained, understandably, a bit scared of her.

Now, despite Harvey's long and fertile history of musical collaborations - ranging from kindred spirit Nick Cave to her recent work with Queens Of The Stone Age's Josh Homme on The Desert Sessions - Uh Huh Her is a back-to-basics affair. Harvey plays all instruments and produces the record, backed only by long-time drummer Rob Ellis.

Left to her own devices, Harvey returns to her usual ways, with grunge, blues and folk influences running through the songs, her ominous distorted guitars and Ellis's percussion creating a mood of twilight unease not far removed from the ominous rural gloom of Radiohead's Hail To The Thief album.

Aside from the throwaway shouty punk of single Who The F***? (apparently a diatribe aimed at Harvey's hapless hairdresser), dark haunted balladry about sex and death is the order of the day, with some tracks, such as the standout The Desperate Kingdom Of Love, stripped down to acoustic guitar.

Each previous PJ Harvey album has seen Polly exploring new territories for her music. Without other musicians to inspire or influence her, Uh Huh Her, is a revisiting of old ground, and the crop of songs doesn't quite make the grade.

The first lady of underground rock is always a welcome presence on the music scene, but there's nothing here she hasn't done before and better.

Updated: 09:16 Thursday, June 10, 2004