PJ Harvey

We’ve got a simple question for anyone surprised by the decidedly strange, war-haunted ways of PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake: have you been keeping score all along? Because if you have, there’s no way around just how unpredictable Harvey’s albums have been since her buzz-stirring beginnings, from the blood-caked chords of “50ft Queenie” and sucker-punch percussion of “Dress,” to such rare moments of restraint as the accordion-laced “Shame” and a tenderized Thom Yorke duet “The Mess We’re In.”

Our Next Steps is just as conflicted creatively, but with songs this strong, there’s no choice but to succumb.

Don’t let PJ Harvey’s slim profile or the fragile, profoundly beautiful balladry of “Beautiful Feeling” and “The Slow Drug” fool you. The indie-rock icon is a fearless frontwoman who knows exactly what she wants at all times, and isn’t afraid to do what it takes to get it, whether that means whipping up an amp-toppling firestorm like “O Stella,” and “Long Snake Moan” or letting the tension build ever-so-slowly, suffocating your speakers with a death grip that’s oh-so-delightful (“Oh My Lover,” “To Bring You My Love”).

And then there’s our Deep Cuts, which pairs alternate takes and fan favorites with a couple of guest spots.

When Josh Homme asked PJ Harvey to track some vocals for his ongoing Desert Sessions project, she didn’t just hold her own against the Queens of the Stone Age frontman; she owned the track, writhing her way across the scuzzy surf-guitar riffs of “Crawl Home.” Come to think of it, that’s her again on “Hitting the Ground,” hooting and hollering alongside the playful indie pop of the Violent Femmes’ Gordon Gano. And if that’s not enough to show you how wide Harvey’s range truly is, our Deep Cuts dips into everything from a spare and spooky four-track demo of “Easy” to an acoustic-guided selection (“That Was My Veil”) from the singer’s extensive Peel Sessions.

If you ask most music critics why PJ Harvey’s important, they’ll tell you that she’s the mascara-smearing, stereotype-stomping queen of alt-rock — a force to be reckoned with, really, and more of a riot grrl than many of the groups that were identified with that scene in the ’90s. All of which is true. In fact, the singer/multi-instrumentalist could’ve called it a day after her first three albums — Dry, Rid of Me, To Bring You My Love — and still had an astounding track record. Lucky for us, she plowed ahead with one head-scratching album after another, from the tense travelogues of Let England Shake and Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea to the tantalizing textures of Uh Huh Her. Here’s to many more where that came from . . .