Musicians Polly Jean Harvey and John Parish don't believe in compromise, but they do believe in marriage -- a creative union in which ideas must be 100% agreed upon by both parties. It might sound laughably utopian for traditional matrimony, but that philosophy has yielded the near-perfect artifact of an album in "A Woman a Man Walked By," released this week.

Prickly, wicked and tender, the 10-song collection sounds wrenched from mythical landscapes and the fiery imbroglio of the id. It surely will stand as one of the year's best rock efforts.

The two British toughs split the work in an orderly way: Parish writes all of the music, and Harvey pens the lyrics and vocals. The set-up allows her to focus on her favorite task, she explained in a rare interview with both musicians in Hollywood before their mesmerizing El Rey show last week.

"Over the years, I've become more interested in writing words than anything, really," said Harvey, spider-black hair falling in tendrils around her shoulders. "So to be in a situation where that's all I have to take care of, to really explore what I can do with my voice, is a joy for me."

She delivers an evening of theater with John Parish, delving into their collaborations 'A Woman a Man Walked By' and 'Dance Hall at Louse Point.'

Three out of the four musicians backing up Polly Jean Harvey on Monday night at the El Rey Theatre wore fedoras onstage -- encouraging news for those who mourn the death of millinery, and that's setting aside Harvey's own white Art Deco headpiece, which called to mind a crowned rack of lamb.

Since her emergence in the early 1990s as one of the most daring voices in alternative rock, Harvey has become something of a style icon. Yet the English singer's love of clothes always has seemed less a devotion to fashion than an interest in costume, another way to embody the characters she describes in her songs.