Where do you go if you need a change of pace and you're already so far left of the musical center the avant-garde calls you Marxist? If you're Polly Jean Harvey, a woman who earned massive critical accolades for albums like To Bring You my Love -- but few commercial rewards -- the answer, apparently, is to embrace the center.

Stories From the City is Harvey's most direct rock record yet. The opening track, "Big Exit," finds Harvey incorporating vocal elements of both Patti Smith and the Ronettes. Accompanied by repetitious guitar strumming and a heavy beat, she speaks most of her words, a la early Smith, while delivering a sweet singing style to the engaging chorus.

Harvey wears the Smith influence heavily throughout, as on "Good Fortune," where lyrics like "dancing in circles," the occasional warble in her voice, and the rising ending are so Smith-esque the song feels like a tribute.

Smith is not the only influence felt here though. The languid "You Said Something" is built around a simple, almost sentimental, '60s-flavored guitar line (reminiscent of REM's beautiful but obscure B-side, "Last Date").

Reflecting the album's dual title, the mood of the disc fluctuates greatly. Two tracks prior to "You Said Something" is "The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore," a song that is vintage Harvey -- dark, direct, and pissed off enough to make Lou Reed proud.

Later she follows the aggressive, guitar-heavy "This is Love" with the ballad "Horses in my Dreams," which features a gorgeous acoustic intro.

Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea may not change Harvey's commercial fortunes; straight ahead for Harvey is still farther off the beaten path than most dare to tread. But Stories does enhance her reputation as one of the most persistently challenging artists working today.