No place to go but down?

In today’s era of short-shelf-life musicians, few artists have been as consistently excellent as PJ Harvey or as relevant 12 years into their careers as they were at the outset.

Which is why it’s such a surprise that an artist, who has always seemed as bold and self-assured as Harvey, is unclear about what to do next. In the waning days of her sold-out tour supporting “Uh Huh Her,” Harvey’s been taking stock of her career, her creativity and her future, and she isn’t entirely pleased. Not with “Uh Huh Her,” her seventh and latest album that came out this summer. Not even with its predecessor, “Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea,” which won Britain’s esteemed Mercury Prize in 2001.

“I find myself right now thinking: ‘Am I fulfilled now, creatively, musically, as I was?’ No, I’m not,” Harvey explained during a recent L.A. tour stop. “I always have to feel like I’m learning new things, and I don’t want to do anything unless I feel I’ve done a great, great piece. That this world is a better place for it. And I’m not really feeling that way. I think it maybe is time to take a review of my life and see where to go from here.”

Sipping a cup of green tea with milk at a hotel cafe in Hollywood, the 35-year-old singer-songwriter didn’t look the part of a panicked artist. She was dressed in black -- leather jacket, shoulder-baring top -- but she was not morose, just concerned, as many artists are, that her best days may be in the past.

Watching her perform at the Wiltern LG last month, you’d never guess she was experiencing something of a career crisis. Live, she was as dynamic and engaging as ever -- a petite apparition in teal pumps and a red dress exercising full command of her talents.

Take a look at her set list, however, and her feelings about her music seem clear.

She kicked off her second night of L.A. shows with the slow and simple riff that opened “To Bring You My Love,” the classic 1995 album that garnered artist of the year awards from Rolling Stone and Spin, then segued into the destructive “Big Exit” off “Stories ...” A trio of songs from “Uh Huh Her” followed, rounded out with crowd favorites off “Dry,” “Is This Desire?” and more songs from “Stories” and “To Bring You My Love.” Additional tracks from her latest came in two encores, but they were hardly the highlight of the show.

And they are not the highlight of her career. While the Village Voice called “Uh Huh Her” “ravishing” and Entertainment Weekly said it “reasserts that Harvey, now the grande dame of this genre, remains unrivaled,” others saw the record as half-hearted and tepid.

Harvey is inclined to agree with the latter.

“I don’t feel it’s my greatest work, and I want to feel that every piece has been my greatest work,” she said.

Despite playing all the instruments on the album (with the exception of drums) and producing it herself, Harvey doesn’t feel she’s stretching enough.

“It’s been a while since I felt I gave it my everything. ‘Is This Desire?’ is probably the last time,” she said of the 1998 record nominated for a Grammy Award and its British equivalent, the Brits. “That’s something that I’ve only really admitted to myself recently.

“I was burning very brightly at that stage as a writer, and the album previous to it [‘To Bring You My Love’],” she added. “I couldn’t maintain that, and that frustrates me. One of my worst fears is that slowly my work will deteriorate. I see it happen to people. You see great, vital people who have changed the course of music start churning out complete crap.

“I would rather stop.... I would lose all of my pride in myself,” she said. “I can’t do it, and I find myself approaching that.”

When Harvey’s tour ends next month, she intends to “find her feet for a while.” She has no plans other than to star in a film next year, the details of which she won’t reveal except to say that the director is a music fan and she looks strange enough for the part.

“All I know is I have to do something differently,” she said, “whatever that might be.”