Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea

Several songs were written in 1998 while Harvey was acting in a Hal Hartley film in New York. She lived in the city for nine months in 1999 but said this was not her New York album, and other songs came from London and Dorset. She wanted a more melodic, fuller sound than before. Victor Van Vugt mixed most of the record, Head mixed We Float, and Howie Weinberg mastered it. Harvey and Thom Yorke had known each other since 1992.

It reached 23 in the UK and 42 in the US, with top ten placings in France, Norway and Sweden, and went Platinum in the UK. The Mercury Prize followed on 11 September 2001. Metacritic scores it 88 from 25 reviews. NME called it a magnificent, life-affirming opus, and Robert Christgau wrote in Rolling Stone that it was the best album of her career. Pitchfork scored it 5.5 in 2000 and 8.4 in a 2021 rescore. Q named it the greatest album by a female artist in 2002, and the Guardian placed it 19th among the best albums of the 21st century. Rolling Stone ranked it 431st in 2012 and 313th in 2020. Thom Yorke sings backing vocals on One Line.