special introductory paragraph!
Dry
Rid Of Me
4-Track Demos
To Bring You My Love
Is This Desire?
Stories From The City, Stories From
The Sea
Uh Huh Her
White Chalk
PJ Harvey started the 90s as a bitter
alternative woman with lots of guitars and ended the decade as a sad alternative woman
with smooth sad music. A guy sent me an email saying, "You should review PJ Harvey!"
and I'm all like "I don't like PJ Harvey," and he's all like "If I mail you all her
albums, will
you review her?" and I'm all like "Whatever" so he sends tape copies of ALL of them!
I don't do that crap anymore though. Why review lousy music when I can review The Hombres?
Am I crazy or is this the Jankly-est record ever
recorded? Every time I listen to it, I think "Jankly!" JANKLY JANKLY JANKLY! But on the other
hand, it's pretty much a bland, overrated, worthless piece of shit. Let's discuss this
aspect, shall we? Okay then. The entire album sounds really bitter. If you're INTO
bitter,
perhaps you'd enjoy a nice Lemonhead or cup of that vomitous Theraflu shit that I will
never, EVER drink again even if I'm the last man on Earth and my throat hurts. Me, I
prefer to turn on this subpar album and listen to PJ Harvey bitch and moan like a nagging
old British school marm threatening to crack your knuckles with a ruler. Perhaps Louis
XIV. HAA!!! SEE THAT??? THE WORLD NEEDS MORE RULER JOKES!!! HUNDREDS
OF THEM!!! THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF RULER JOKES!!!! ALL HOLDING HANDS
AND SINGING "DO THEY KNOW IT'S CHRISTMASTIME?" Speaking of which, I've always
thought it a shame that CRASS didn't record that single. I just love the idea of a
b-side
entitled "Well? Do They?" HA!!!! DID YOU SEE THAT??? CRASS JOKES!!!!
HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS UPON DOZENS AND MILLIONS OF CRASS JOKES!!! ALL
DANCING AROUND IN AN ANARCHIC COMMUNE OF PEACE AND NONSTOP
COMPLAINING ABOUT EVERY LITTLE GODDAMNED THING!!! Musicallllly, the guitars
do some surprisingly neat things every once in a while, bottlenecking and skranking out
some neat distorted ash noise. But not nearly often enough. Most of the time, there's
like
a simplistic, clich‚d bass-and-drum part failing to fill up a dreadfully empty aural
space,
topped with PJ complaining about a boy who left her because her face is so hairy or
something. And when the band tries to "rock out," they just sound stupid, slow and
wimpy. And OH! The overdrama. If you thought girls got over that self-important
angst stage once they made it to college and started drinking beer, then you haven't met
Polly Harvey. Every single song is SO overserious and SO brutally, painfully "important"
that you just want to jam your prick in her mouth so she'll shut the fuck up for half a
second. Hee hee. Misogyny? I hardly KNOW Ogyny! My wife likes it, but it's too
bland for me. "Hair" is almost playful and I honest to God enjoy the heck out of the
Breedersy "Oh My Lover" and slide-guitarified "Happy And Bleeding," but the rest wallow
in complaints and really insipid little half-riffs. The Spin Alternative Record
Guide, however, gives it an 8 and says that, "Moaning, yowling, straining into a
falsetto and then plunging toward an open-throated yell, Harvey uses the natural breadth
of her voice to go beyond the singer's usual palette. Say, did I mention how
hilariously
ugly and annoying it is when Polly does all this stupid over-emotional crap with her
voice?
The storied first chuck. You see, back in good ole '92, music execs weren't lining up on the doorsteps of folksy, cute, pretentious acoustic females, which, for better or worse, made women work really damn hard to get a record deal (I'm not sexist;I think they should start doing that for guys too. I mean, Eve 6? Matchbox 20? What the hell? Is this music really necessary?). Listening to brilliant pop/punk/gristle gems like "Dress" and "Happy and Bleeding", it's quite obvious that Polly and her band are something special. There's also a light-heartedness here that kind of gets thrown away on scabrous lizards like the forthcoming album. Some songs even approach radio-ready status.
Overall, just be assured that this isn't one of those "growing" or "transitional" albums that so many bands fancy to have for their first disc. Straight up, this record kicks ass. The only complaints are that some songs are forgettable ("Victory") or even altogether poor (the shitty-as-fuck "Plants and Rags" is probably Polly's worst song ever). But I'll forgive her that for songs like "Sheela-Na-Gig". Goddamn, what a chorus in that one. And, also noteworthy is the fact that Polly sings AND plays guitar at the same time, a process that usually results in either lackluster vox or boring guitar. Make no mistake; she can shred the fuck out of a gitt.
DRY is undoubtedly one of the best rock records of the early 1990s. I don't think the production's that great, but it does convey an overall darkness that was obvious intentional. This is PJ when PJ Harvey was a band, and the drummer was absolutely amazing - how off the wall can you get in a rock song, man? This is PJ at her most impassioned, and songs like "Oh My Lover," "Happy and Bleeding" and "Plants and Rags," while not necessarily as catchy as some of the other songs, pack an incredible emotional punch. Enough witht he cliches...
Often times, I can see where you're coming from in any given review, even if I think you're as wrong as hell (an admirable critical trait that you share with Robert Christgau, for my money). Having said that, how you can deem "Dry" only a four, whist giving the massively over-hyped and overrated "To Bring You My Love" an eight is just beyond me. This record is, at it's best, truly visceral and catchy, to boot! I know that you dislike whiny, melodramatic females (reference your Tori Amos reviews, which I concur with completely), but this album is creative, tuneful, and mixed waaay too damn low (I have to crank up my car stereo to about 20 just to hear most of it on the freeway).
One other thing - this album is a rhythmic dynamo, in every sense. In some ways, I thank Robert Ellis more than Harvey for the success of this album. His drumming is - and this is not hyperbole - almost Elvin Jones like in its use of polyrhythms. And, lest that sound too much like musician-speak bullshit, the bottom line is that he rocks the tunes into next week. I'm no drummer, but I can't help but state that every drummer in the world should own this. Hell, I own it, and I'm no drummer!
In some ways, this is still my favorite Harvey record, though "Stories" and "Rid of Me" have their very specific charms. Actually, the new one's kinda good, too - review that one soon.
PJ Harvey, she looks like a man, she holds her guitar like a man, but she's a pounding womanflesh. Hey now! She is only a manlook in the sometimes, and i'm about the FUNTIMES.
There is one good song, the one where she goes GO GO GO GO! GOOOOOO! GO GO GO GO! Open wide PRINCESS, here comes my SACK!
There is a ROCK N ROLL GIRL in Japan who we gave the nickname PJAPAN HARVEY, because she looks like PJ HARVEY but with JAPANESE GIRL EYES. She is better looking and sounding than PJENGLAND HARVEY, she is going to give her a great big snog, it's going to be exciting. JAPAN FUCKING SUCKS. ENGLAND SUCKS. WE ARE THE MISFITS!
This album be suckin' a lollipop like KOZAK, man!
Remember Telly Savalas as KOZAK??? Back in the 1975s? When we were a younger
gentler nation with fewer Muslims? Bring back KOZAK!!! I loved that bald lickable
tangerine head! Even more bitter and less interesting than the last one (but with the
same empty dry ugly Albini-style (Albini?) production), Rid Of Me asks that
musical question, "Why on Earth did so many critics love this album so much?" Your
guess is as good as mine. It features a lot of laughably pained "orgasmic" moaning and
groaning but very VERY little in the way of any riff you haven't heard by a million
shitty
opening acts before. In fact, more than anything else, that's exactly what this sounds
like
- the work of a shitty opening act that plays and plays and plays while you wait outside
the
club for a good, creative band with something musically interesting to say to come
onstage. Polly Harvey used to insist that "PJ Harvey" was a band. If this was the case,
PJ
Harvey was a fucking miserable excuse for a band that did not by any stretch of the
imagination deserve a record contract. The songs reek anger while still sounding wimpy,
bleed ulcers of pissedoffness while not providing any catharsis, and scream moans of
sanitary napkin juice into your ear while providing nothing worthwhile AT ALL to
listen to. Spin Alternative Record Guide, on the other hand, gave it a 10 out
of
10. Because it's so great.
I'll even go as far as to say I can understand why people, especially men since we're talking about wing wongs and kitty lips, don't dig it when Polly
starts her vocal wailings. I remember being about fifteen and asking my old man "What the hell is this shit?!" once when he was crankin' out some old
Howlin Wolf tunes on the hi-fi. I just didn't get the whole creepy moanin' shit until I got old enough to understand that his voice was heavier than
anything Leslie West could dish out on his Les Paul. By the way, what the fuck were we talking about? Oh yeah, how a few white boys don't dig P.J.
Harvey. Sorry about that, I got sidetracked just thinking about that nifty little guitar intro that West did at the beginning of "Mississippi Queen." The
cowbell thing counting the song off was pretty cool too. I'm giving Dry an eight, and if anyone can point me to the store where they're selling copies of
it for fifty cents a pop, I'll take a case of 'em.
Comment: Not to be played. (I can't write that) Maybe grab a pillow and rock back and forward while sitting on the floor, this scares small children (I can't write that either) Play songs 1,2,4 (and if you last through them) 11
My rating is the Steve lets make everything sound as thin as possible Albini bummed up of 4's (1 point per good song)
I have never heard anything like this album. The most punishing hardcore, the noisiest avant-garde record, the grungiest Mudhoney album, etc., never reached the noisy, dirty plateau that this particular slab o' vinyl contains. This is probably due to Steve Albini's god-like production; I have yet to hear a bad album produced by this guy (well, unless you count that Bush fiasco). He makes a snare hit sound like a fucking rifle blast from Texas Chainsaw Massacre, every chord struck sound like a hurricane.
Of course, all this recording crap would all be for naught if the songs encapsuled weren't among the most horrifying, direct rock songs ever written. Literally, this thing hit me like a 5 ton Mac truck the first time I heard it. The Bob Dylan cover nearly out-creeps the Man himself, the two "Man-Size"'s are more skin-crawling than any Goth song in existence, and the opening song, "Rid Of Me" is probably her most famous due to the refrain, "Don't you wish you never/Never met her". Have you seen pictures of Polly? She's like five feet tall! How the hell does she create this Satanic racket? I guess we'll never know because she play's trip-hop now (but that's a matter we'll get to later), but Bejesus, what a record. Uncle Zackie recommends that you pick it up today at your nearest Peaches or whatever.
Your introduction [Zach's original intro -ed] accusses her of 'taking herself WAAAAAY too seriously'.
It's a complaint she's heard often, and has routinely claimed that it's a
false impression arising from the fact that people often miss the humour in
her work. The evidence to back that up is all over this album, particularly
on tracks like 'Me-Jane' and 'Snake' (both amusing takes on her usual
concerns), and even 'Rub 'Til It Bleeds', '50ft Queenie' and 'Man-Sized'.
She does make serious music but there's a lot of humour in it too.
Equally, although others have tried to suggest she's some sort of feminist
spokeswoman she insists her songs are essentially personal. Ofcourse, that
she's finds herself in that position just shows how few serious, lucid women
we have in alt-rock. If critics tried to present any given male alt-rock
star as telling us how men think about relationships, sex etc. it would seem
ridiculous, but they're all too keen to case PJ as Everywoman.
8/10
...i kept reading reviews from usually amazing sources that glowed and
glistened and i thought: do i own the same album? so i'd try again. a little
deeper, harder, faster!!! nothing worked, except putting it in the dark
corner again...watching it fester or something.
but these reviews! better and better. bandwagonesque-ish?
"porno-production-of-sleaze-girl-blues-angst-perfectly-realized!
forced-sodomized-listener-on-substandard-guitar-freakout" -
"accomplished-manhater-deifies-female-impotence-in world-of-male-rock"!
"albini-muddies-up-the-blind-frustration-of-a-woman-on-the-edge!!!" whatever
dudes. it sucks. you never play it. not in the car. not washing the cat. or
on the stereo, sure as hell not on the headphones. Ever.
but it looks great in print! and it has that incomprehensible allure of
being something that's supposed to be REAL COOL cause it's so lousy that it
makes you look like an extremely informed critics buddy or some other
elitist. the in-crowd of white noise appreciation.
after the 10th time trying to find a context for this album OUTSIDE OF WHAT
IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE. i resold it, got 5 bucks for it and the words and
wails that mostly just yelled to me how pissed off she was that DRY got any
kind of acclaim - - - left my life forever. RID of ME indeed.
1 star.
Dry? -7 stars
My point is, we had reached an era of music in which there was a huge void for females around this time who actually strapped on some machismo and
reminded us that rock has relatively little to do with male genetalia. Then the douchebags at Rolling Stone and Spin start taking notice and then praise it
hoping that they've fooled you with the idea that they "broke" the artist into the mainstream.
And this is by far a mainstream record. Sure, the music is so basic that even I learned the guitar part for "Missed" in about two minutes, and that's
saying something especially if you've ever heard me "play" guitar. But isn't that what rock music is all about in the first place? So don't give me this jive
about this album not being musically challenging: neither was a lot of Howlin Wolf's shit. What both Howling Wolf and Polly Harvey have in common
(at least on this release) is the unbelievable dynamics of the music, how even the most simplistic musicianship sometimes kicks the shit out of
virtuosity and the passion of their respective lyrical subject matter. The biggest difference, of course, is that The Wolf just wants to fuck while Polly is
tired of getting fucked over. A perfect ten for those of us who get it and for those who disagree, sit down and watch those old Happy Days episodes
featuring Leather Tuscadero rocking your balls off.
I agree with Zach. This album is rocking and amazing. I think that there are a lot of us guys who love Polly's raw style on her early records and we see it as a source of musical pleasure.I can't help but think of the guy called Dave who, on your site, said that "there's only so many variations on "this is great" that one person can handle writing", so I won't say much at all. All songs are appealing to me, I like her moaning and her raw voice and I love Steve's production.
Interesting, is it not? These are Polly's demos for the songs
on the first two albums, and most of the demos are better than the final versions! She
still
does her gruesome, disgusting moans in "Legs" and "Snake" (boy does THAT sound
embarrassing on a 4-track!), but her guitar sounds GREAT! All kinds of nice bottleneck
distorted slide drone stuff without the detriment of a wussy rhythm section to make the
tunes sound like bad indie rock. Her songs still feature too many wretched, unappealing
parts (for masochists in leather!), but at least it's finally clear that she CAN write
and play
some really neat original stuff. It just, in a lot of instances, failed to make the jump
from
solo to band material. I'm not blaming anybody. It's nobody's fault. But oh the songs
on
here - some are acoustic and some are electric, but there is no bass or drums and as I
said, that's a good thing. It's an okay record! The other morning my dog rolled around
in a big possum carcass. He came home stinking up a blue streak, though not as much as
the song "M-Bike" by PJ Harvey.
7/10
See, it's like I've been saying all along - PJ Harvey is
talented as hell and it was only a matter of time before she finally put out a record
that
showed off all of her talents as a singer and songwriter, both female. The way she did
this
is by giving up on that tired old riot grrl crap and making actual MUSIC. Subdued,
gentle,
sad music, like a female Nick Cave or a male Tori Amos, with strong smooth production
and lots of organs, violins and dance beats going on for the MTV Dance Hall Yeah!
crowd. I've been pitching a show called Dance Hall Yeah! to MTV for several
seasons but generally to no avail because their schedule is already full of The Real
World (SU-W) and Road Rules (TH-SA). Which reminds me of a joke: How did
the aspiring young musician get on MTV? By sucking his own cock! Ha ha ha!
Yeah! This album had a hit single that lots of people love to hate and I even used to
hate it until I noticed how neat the fuzzy bass thing is. I had never even noticed that
back
when they used to show the video (or in fact ANY videos) on MTV, because my tinny TV
speaker couldn't make room for Polly's loud voice and the quiet little fuzzy bass thing.
Eventually here I'll name the song. Nah, fuck it. Her voice sounds great throughout,
as
she abandons the cocky Pat Benatar/Chrissie Hynde shitpunk angerwhore thing in
exchange for a lovely, full-bodied womanly singing voice of goodness and beauty. The
mood is sad and slow even as the music does lots of turnabouts between cool organny
jazz pop, dark Stones-style rocker ("Meet Ze Monster"! YES!), bass/drum trance-no haus,
acoustic folksiness, tremeloey electric soundscapingin' whatnot, blues folky - only ONCE
returning to the bad style of her early work, on the awful final track "The Dancer,"
which,
from the sounds of it, may very well be a bonus track stuck on the end by a jealous
Melissa Etheridge. Which reminds me of a little joke: What do Melissa Etheridge and PJ
Harvey have in common? Most of the time, they've both got big bushy patches of hair
under their noses! GET IT???? DO YOU GET IT??!@?!?!??!?!?!? Send me a couple dollars
if you don't get it.
A simple, simple, simple, simple record. Good God, Polly, can ya use more than two chords in a song??? That's what you'll no doubt be wondering when songs like "Working for the Man" come on. So goddamn basic.
No matter. The songs are indescribably tense, and they're intense and powerful too. It's almost as scary as the previous one, but the horror here is all about what's NOT played; i.e. the art of subtlety, something which I generally HATE in music, but which really works here. Looking back after hearing it, you won't really remember the names of the songs or how they go. But it really is a worthwhile album. Just give it a chance. I, like you will, hated it at first but now I love it. Sorry for the boring review, but there really isn't much to say about this thing.
Oh yeah, now I remember what I could say. The watery guitar in "Working for the Man" is a revelation, and the song would suck donkey nut without it. Can you believe that Polly didn't want it in there? Somebody needs to smack that bitch up. Sorry. That was a lame attempt at humor. I'm really not sexist, nor do I promote violence upon females. Shit. I probably should have erased that, because now I can't show my mom what I wrote. Shit.
It makes this album total genius. Should be a ten.
10/10
No one else I talk to understands the way I feel about this. I just want to scream it from the highest mountain.
I hated the CD when I first got it, but that is how I always feel about my favorite cds.
An apology is in order. I have been more than rude to Miss
Harvey in this review. I've been meanspirited and petty. TOM Petty, that is! You DON'T
Ha-ave to Sit When You Take a pEe! DON'T HAVE TO SIT WHEN YOU TAKE A PA-
AY! On this recording, Patty Harson embraces modern stone age high technology with
tons of bass `n drum pounders to dance to. Almost industrial in its fuzz-thump
simplicity,
the synth-filled album is dark and throbbing (like Gary Coleman's half-inch cooterplug)
and vaguely reminiscent of serious pained womans like Tori Amos & Andy "Sinead"
O'Connor. Whispering, piano - what is this, you'll ask - Is This Desire? Or Is This
Erotica by Madonna? Only my chest surgeon knows for sure. As I was saying,
several of these songs have wickedass synth bass lines and neat electronic noises, with
only a few filling that "normal" void so left behind. A gentle guitar thing here, some
deep
meaningful crap there, some sad pianos, and an entire bowl of pus that I mixed red dye
into so you'd think it was pudding.
Prepare to be turned off, buddy. If you at all share a disaffection for the new "trip-hop" genre (ya know the one, where all these Ecstasy-fueled white boys act like they're visionaries just because they're mixing techno with hip-hop), then you'll listen to this album and, reactively, pinch your nose and throw your head into the toilet. To be certain, songs like "A Perfect Day Elise" and "The Sky Lit Up" are positively Portishead-ish, but in fact, the album kicks ass. Their are oodles and gobs of hooks here (something you need if you're going to make an electronica-tinged album, and something R.E.M. and Madonna could have used on their respective electronica-tinged albums), and there's still PLENTY of piano and guitar here, so it's not all Massive Attack stuff. The bottom line is, there is a saying that there's only good music and bad music, no in between. Well, my fine friends, this is a damn good album, despite a few stinkers here and there, and it deserves your due respect. Treat it as such.
And I don't think she takes as seriously as you think she does. And, even if she is guilty of it, at least she has a reason to be, unlike, say, Natalie Imbruglia or Jewel: she's got the talent.
This one really makes alot of sense to me stylistically. I think PJ has
a very, um, haunting voice, and it really shines on the slower, more
atmospheric number like the album opener and closer. Sometimes 'Desire'
is a bit production happy though. There's the track (7?) where the
whole song is written around this really low, really sludgey bass synth
riff, but the first 20 times I listened to it were on crappy speakers
and it just sounded dumb. Track 11 is too dancy (Chorus:
Whoooooo-eeeuuuuhhhh!). Every once in awhile the busy synths and stuff
obscure the songwriting, and I don't really care about Catherine making
whale-noises or Joy never having danced (tracks 3 and 9, respectively.)
Having said all of that though, this is a very strong album by my
reckoning. Even the bad one's don't stink too horribly in the context
of the entire album, and the good one's are just great. There are some
real classics on this one, and I'd recommend it to just about any one
who likes good song-writing.)
(If I got the track #'s wrong, forgive me. I don't have the case with
me.)
By the way, I think your comments on her earlier work are unfair. Dry is
excellant especially Dress, Sheela - Na - Gig, Plants and Rags and Fountain.
4 Track Demos is my favourite though. Legs is awesome as is Easy, Hardly
Wait and 50ft Queenie. Maybe it's because you're male and can't relate to it
as well as an angsty teenage girl like myself. My boyfriend doesn't like her
earlier stuff either.
A lot of people apparently love this one, and I like it too but
it sounds just like Heart! Radio-friendly professionally sung major labelly produced
friendly pop rock. Chimey guitars, echo on the voice, all ready for your Dad to enjoy in
his
Camaro on the way home from work at the cracker factory. And this is fine and dandy
while the songs are good (the first four songs are awesome - track 3 is a goddamned
GAMELAN!!!! Are you part of me on this????). But side two craps out something fierce
with a bunch of lame macho pussy rock (is there anything worse than a macho pussy?
Smoking a big ol' cigar and throwing hunting knives at you as you attempt to make sex?)
with boring riffs and no power to speak of. It ends good though, so never mind all
that. That's it. I'm naked and tired. Write for pics.
Heralded by critics as something of a return to raw, bluesy form (she
plays guitar again on this one! Less goofy electronic sounds!) and at the
same time more of a poppy, mid-period Patti-Smith-influenced affair. Well,
it's really neither of those, but instead a subtle, often beguiling
collection of songs that are more accessible than those of the past
record. The first track, "Big Exit," has a finely-honed abrasiveness that
rivals Rid Of Me yet seems more precise, less frenzied and
desperate; it's still a hell of an exciting song, though.
Other tracks, such as "This Mess We're In" and "Beautiful Feeling" (both of
which feature a certain lazy-eyed English gent on vocals [okay, it's Thom
Yorke]) are more mellow, but lyrically no less powerful. Some of the material
gets a bit same-y around the middle, as was the case with the last album, but
where that one had the near-the-end one-two sucker-punch of the
awe-inspiring "The River" and the downright harrowing "No Girl So Sweet",
this has "Horses In My Dreams" and "We Float," possibly two of the most
intimate, powerful (even if not immediately so) songs Polly's written to
date. Part of what makes them so great is the insinuating rawness found
in her voice, yet at the same time she doesn't resort to creep-out histrionics
(albeit really entertaining creep-out histrionics) as she did on To
Bring You My Love.
This is most noticable on "We Float," an actually really conventional-sounding
track (complete with subdued drum machine and piano) that some fans tend to
hate, but in my opinion this is just because Polly no longer seems wracked with
the agony that possessed her in the past. I personally don't feel it's
necessary for artists to be in the thrall of psychological turmoil to create
great art, but if that's your cup of tea, you know which of her albums to turn
to. A fine record, this.
Hmmm. I only have kind of a lousy MP3 copy of this one. The quieter songs seem completely buried in bass and I have a hard time telling exactly what's going on unless I'm right next to the computer speakers. Also, and this may be the fault of my lousy MP3 copy, a lot of the songs really blow. PJ "Steve" Garvey tired of that radio-ready sound for the radio and has here retreated to the stark, guitar-driven sound of so many earlier times yore. Most of the songs are performed in sad or angry minor keys and some of them are quite emotionally affective, but FAR far FAR too many of the "hooks" are composed of two chords going up-down-up-down-up-down like a lazy, bitter, drunken bluesman beating his wife. There are standouts of course -- a sweet acoustic strummy here, a brooding kickass fully-composed slow rocker there, a bunch of birds chirping here, an eerie tapping keyboard note there, some clicky percussion here, a harrowing emotional breakdown there -- but the concentration of samey macho blues-rock songs with unbelievably stupid lyrics ("Who the fuck do you think you are/Get out of my hair/who the fuck do you think you are/Comin' round here/who the fuck who the fuck/who the fuck do you think you are".... "Mummy, put your needle down/How did you feel when you were young?/Cos I feel like I've just been born/Even though I'm getting on/How the world slips by so fast/How does anybody last?") weighs down the golden circle quite a bit over 14 compositions. Look, let's be honest here. The good songs on here -- and there are, oh let's say SIX of them -- are really, REALLY great songs: moving, touching, filled with sadness beans and weeping with gentle tearful guitar backdrops. But then there's eight others that all sound like she spent no time on them at all! Also, to be further honest, only a few of the songs have bad lyrics. Her love poetry is beautiful ("When I was younger/I spent my days/Wondering to whom/I was supposed to pray/It's you?".... "See this winged boy falling/Falling out of something/Hits the drug I'm needing") and when she writes about taking a dump, it's hilarious ("Someone outta rinse it out with soap/Wash it out, wash it out, wash it out"... "I'm feeling burned/You taught me a lesson/I didn't want to learn"). But a song is only as enjoyable as its melody, and that's where Hip-Hug Her falls short of its two predecessors. That's just one well-endowed man's opinion though. If you like simple little dark blues riffs with a lovely female voice angrily intoning atop, certainly do feel free to go ahead and buy it. Just don't expect me to play it at your funeral. I'll be too busy holding up my "God Hates Fags" sign. . . . . I'm sorry, but I feel very strongly that the British shouldn't be smoking cigarettes.
*I SUBMIT THIS FOR INCLUSION UNDERNEATH YOUR BULL SHIT*
I'm drunk.
All piano and high singing voice. 34 minutes, 11 songs. Dark, eerie, sad songs! Very evocative! Good songs! Sometimes drums, occasionally acoustic guitar. Stark! Creepy! Melancholy! Spooky echo on her voice a lot. Really good simple melodies that sound greate!
The word "Pisspump" 75 times in a row.
I hated that last album daerly; that's why I'm so surprised that I love this album so much. Remember Tori Amos back before dung poured out of her mouth at record-breaking speeds? This is like that; very cold, stark piano with eerie high-pitched haunted house vocals. PJ Harvey specifically didn't want this album to sound like her last PIECE A SHIT and her decision and ideas are geniusly brilliant. Track 6 stinks, but come on. Listen to this harrowing 18th century ghostly girl music and stop complaining about patooties. Patooties are none or you apples dunk flap borp.
"O God I Miss You!" she might say.
It's really more of an 8.5, but a high as SHIT 8.5. She sounds like a little girl ghost creeping through her former home, haunting you with her songs of sorrow. Not "goth," but GOTHIC. Like classic Nick Cave in woman form.
Here are some other things about this album: keybaoard, tambourine/piano like an old Beach Boys song, bouncy, minor-key, driving, banjo and harmonica, starts a capella "Broken Harp" SUCKS because it's actually played on a broken harp, for Pete's sake. Nice chord changes, emotional, accordion, troubled, thump-thump, morose, despair, Insane screams at the end. Count De Bok Bok.
This world is a pile of SHT aimed at me.
q: How do you tell the difference between Fiona Apple,
Tori Amos & PJ Harvey?
a: The size of their moustaches.
8/10
Ahhh, PJ Harvey...the goddess of one of my ex-teachers. Not a HUGE commercial success, unfortunately (or is that fortunately?), but much more worthy than most of those women who are on top (of the charts :) now. I have nothing against Alanis, but PJ blows her out of the water. Unlike Coutrney Love, she doesn't sing like Kurt Cobain and rely on shock tactics to surprise people. And Shirley Manson from Garbage just wishes that she could sing like PJ. I won't even get begin talking about Jewel...
I'm not sure how you like dry more then rid of me, I personally would give dry a 4/10, it is o. k and I love "plants and rags" it is so creepy. In my
opinion P.J Harvey's worst album.
I don't get her either. I got this for 50 cents and listened to 3/4 of it
with an open mind before realizing it just wasn't gonna get any better. Why
people think this kind of music is good is beyond me.
Have you found a new job yet? Some nights, I worry so much about you that I can't sleep (especially the nights were I've done a lot of coke).
Very good. Not bitter at all. She likes dark humor and writes some mighty lyrics on this one. Her songwriting was strong from the start. 7/10
This was the first album in the 90s woman orgy album night a few nights back. Better than Thoras Amos Shitmos worse than BJUCK.
What's there to "get" anyway? There's plenty of Tori Amos records out there for everyone to buy if rock and roll music written with some passion isn't
your thing, kool thing. As far as every single song being "overserious," I guess it was wrong of me to chuckle when Polly states "it's hard to walk in a
dress, it's not easy." I'll start laughing my ass off next time I hear Tori ask why we all crucify ourselves.
Ouch, this hurts. Look me in the eye and tell me this is well recorded. You cannot listen to this in the car, in the bath, on headphones, on the head, giving head, getting head, on the radio, on an expensive stereo, on the stereo we got. Its shite, its bullshay, its so annoying, we're down to playing it just for fun. We have a Breeders Title T.K. night and also bring this out. The jangly guitar intro, then breathy, moany vocals, then the band (and I use the term loosely) comes in, its all to much. I'm sure Stevieboy didn't get paid for this. Umm theres a thought, imagine Steve at the mixing desk, P.J at the mic, Steve gives P.J the thumbs up, P.J starts moaning, Steve looks at P.J, P.J looks at Steve, Stevie looks at Polly, shes moaning, Stevie's skinny white arse, Polly's skinny white arse, hay what the...some strange woman (my girlfriend) has a water pistol (loaded) to my head and is threatening to use it, if I send this. What do I do? Caught between personal injury (water damage) and my strong musical beliefs. O.K. there are good songs here, trying to get out. Polly is capable, see "To bring you my love". I have liked P.J. alot
10/10
RID OF ME is definitely a let-down. Steve Albini can fuck up any recording; he has to be the dumbest producer. I'd just use a 4-track if I wanted my record to sound like that. And the mixing on this album sucks hard. Most of the songs sound better with just PJ singing and playing guitar, as heard on...
I like this lots. Good review, you nailed it. A scary, scabrous record.
Like peeling scabs and trying to convey that through music. If the
blues ever evolved, which is totally doubtful given the fact that all who
aspire to play the blues want to sound like everyone else, this is one
road that would be taken.
The is a fantastic album. The combination of PJ's extraordinary guitar
playing and the way Steve Albini thrusts it right to the forefront of the
mix marks PJ out as the '90s true successor to past blues greats, instead of
trad-musos traditionalists like Clapton.
God, man, how many times did you listen to this before reviewing it?
Two? Everyone should ignore Prindle and get this album, it's worlds
above everything else she did. Losing the band was a dumb move. The
album was recorded by Steve Albini, btw.
I think that rid of me is a fine album, most of the songs are really good, it is no to bring you my love but still great.
yep. this album sucks harder than a black hole on steroids. i bought it in
a second hand store for a dollar (whoa!), brought it home, listened to it -
all the way thru...almost. taking it off after the 3rd or 8th song because
it was unbearable. then sat the gnarly whiner of a pms cycle in a dark
corner where it seemed to get better with repeated UNLISTENINGS.
To Bring You My Love? 9 stars
Fuck Spin and those who subscribe to it. I'll take dad's beaver shots any day of the week over that shit and I'll take this album over any that Polly's done,
with "Dry" a close second. And anyone who has the balls to call Albini a producer should stand clear of him if he offers to light your cigarette: He uses
a blowtorch. In the studio, he uses vintage mics and magnetic tape, just the way papa Sam Phillips recorded el pees back in the day.
It's 1993 folks, and what got everyone's attention in the mainstream press was the fact that the last time we heard someone without testicles bitch, moan,
and yell with this much vitriol was when Chrissie declared she wasn't the kind she used to be. Meanwhile, around that same time, Exene was chirpin'
about the "burnin' house of love." Whatever. Polly just fucking blows the house up.
a big freakin' WHATEVER to anyone who has anything bad
to say about this album. this is rock in the RAW! if
you can't feel it in your guts and bones then there is
something seriously wrong with you. granted i'm not
exactly a rock fan and listen to a lot of other stuff
like hip hop and various electronic genres. but of
the rock i do enjoy i put this album in my top 10. up
there with Danzig, the Birthday Party or early Bad Seeds and
even Neil Young w/Crazy Horse. who cares what Rolling
Stone or NME said or says about it? i sure as hell
don't read those things and they have no influence
over my opinion. Rid of Me is what your music teacher
meant when they said "once more WITH FEELING." x11
never listened to PJ Harvey until a couple days ago. I like this album. It's
vicious, tired, raw, and furious. With emphasis on raw. This is
one...raw...album. Not as raw as Flipper, obviously, but then nothing is.
I don't get why you don't like this, Mark, or rather, loathe it with such
passion. There are things that are unlikable about it (some of the songs
just ain't too great, the bassist either got fucked over in the mix or just
sucked a nut, cause you can barely hear him at ALL, the tempos are pretty
draggy at times, Polly Jean's vocals are, on occasion, hideously grating,
forced and tuneless, like on "Legs"), but it's mostly a great, incredibly
pissed-off album. I give it an 8.
Given the amount of sickeningly misogynist jokes on this page, though, maybe
you just don't like women singing aggressively? The mustache jokes about
Tori Amos and Fiona Apple I can deal with, since both of them are horrid,
but I will not tolerate it about PJ Harvey. She is A) a great songwriter, B)
a scorching guitarist, and C) a great singer.
It's not cliched. Who was writing lyrics this viciously honest and sexually
upfront in 1993? Kurt Cobain sure fucking wasn't. Answer? No one was, and no
one's writing them nowadays. The riffs are mostly great (especially on "50
Ft Queenie" and "Ecstasy" - she's hell on wheels with a slide), and Polly
Jean has a great scream (though, like you, I cringe whenever she starts
moaning tunelessly - check most of "Legs" for that...though even that song
has a really interesting percussion part in the bridge). The riff on "Hook"
is just so tired and angry, and I love it. I want that guitar tone. It just
drips anger and disgust. And what's this about sounding "wussy"? Christ, did
you even listen to "50 Ft Queenie," "Yuri-G," "Me-Jane" or "Ecstasy"? Those
songs totally rock out. You have to give this album another listen.
However, there are some problems. The cover of "Highway 61 Revisited" is
crappy, the trio version of "Man-Size" really isn't anything to write home
about (on the other hand, the atonal string sextet version freaks the living
SHIT out of me), "Legs" gets ruined by Polly's horrible vocal, and "Missed"
doesn't really do all that much for me. But the rest of the songs are
good-to-fantastic. Especially "50 Ft Queenie" and "Ecstasy." Those two songs
are astoundingly great. I stand by my 8.
10/10
4-TRACK DEMOS. Definitely my second favorite. It's great. She does sorta sound like a man sometimes, though...
How can you find 4 track demos better then rid of me? Although some of it is funny (the ridiculously stupid background vocals of "rid of me " and
the coughing in the beginning of "legs") it is just striped down versions of rid of me songs, still the songs are mostly great, 'cause P. J. Harvey is
great!
9/10
TO BRING YOU MY LOVE is the weakes record PJ Harvey put out. It's so commerical that the title track, "Long Snake Moan," and "C'Mon Billy" cannot bring it back up to normal PJ level. It's pretty boring.
This record is perfect. She adopts a smattering of pop forms to her
purposes, and creates a lush sort of brilliance. This record is
undeniable, and probably the best place for the fainthearted to start.
That opening track--what is that? Sexy, but dark, dark, and scary. Do
you really want a woman like that in your bed, to reach over for in the
night when you are needy? Think about it, and then think, most women
have experienced the feelings she is showing us through her music. You
should be scared, but most people, unfortunately, won't even think
about this enough to go there, because that is a dreadful place, best left
totally repressed. And then there is that keening one about a woman,
deep into a relationship where the passion is gone, bringing out
another kind of passion --"Billy--you still look good to me"-- one that isn't
desparation, or clingingness, but is nevertheless vulnerable in a way
that is so rare to hear in rock. It's like looking at one of those
watery, gold-filled Klimt paintings of the older, less beautiful, but
still, in a wierd, eery way, beautiful woman. A strange kind of love
that is more real, more true, than all that fake passion you hear sung
about over and over and nauseatingly over again in other musics.
Oh! Oh! Oh! Pj Harvey's to bring you my love is one of my all time favorite albums of all time, from the beginning to the end it is a frightening
picture of the inside of a woman, this is kinda like dear dairies from hell, it is 10 meditations on sex and religion. in my humble opinion this is a
concept album about a woman's animal urges destroying her, trying to show how culture and sex cannot mix. Incredible. The lyrics are amazing
and the music is minimilistic glory.
This is the only one of her albums I rate. The whole thing is superb, every
song, though it certainly requires the right time for listening (I tried
first thing with breakfast, but it wasn't happening) Perhapse if I was an
angry woman I'd get into her earlyer stuff, but bloody hell! Rid of Me? Ugh
fetch the bucket! Alot of people rave on about 'Stories from the City' as
well, but it doesn't do it for me. I've not heard 'Is this Desire?' though,
so perhapse I'll give that a bash, sounds like a giggle!
This Cd has touched me in a way that I have never been touched. It is amazing. I have heard music that makes me cry, and all that. But this is so much deeper. It is touching me on some primal level that I am not even conciously aware of. It is like someone is reaching down below the pit of my stomach, and playing with my organs, like my liver and kidneys, and it tickles. I just want to scream about it I love it so much. It is orgasmic, but much better than that. It is indescribeable, I have never heard anything that sounds like this album.
A bunch of religious crap. What an ignorant, ugly human being. If she
brought me her love I would throw up for days. Please all you idiots that
write lyrics out of the Middle Ages go back there immediately.
Minimalistic, astonishing, stupendous and melodic. All the songs are really strong and her voice is grandiose in all of them. This is for everyone who loves the big efforts like Ziggy and Exile and Revolver. It's just so damn good. "To Bring You My Love" are five most luscious minutes I've ever heard, "Meet Ze Monsta" is rocking as shit, "Working For The Man" is like a thriller, "C'Mon Billy" is Peej in her best blues mode, "Teclo" is the most beautiful song about longing and desire, "Long Snake Moan" is hell on guitars, "Down By The Water" is pure classic, etc, etc. Kudos Peej! 10/10
8/10
IS THIS DESIRE? is a step up, no doubt. nice use of biblical themes, sort of laid back, ranging from beauty to ugliness...it's a good record, but not in the same vein as her old records. Too many nuances, man!
I love when reviews make references to Gary Coleman's genitalia, but
I really I think that Mark Prindle is a little gay.
I have decided that I really like P. J. Harvey's is this desire, it is a great stab at techno although not a masterwork like R.E.M's up or radiohead's
kid a or disgustingly original like the fall's levitate it is still a great transformation, most bands would not have been able to pull it off, the first
track is gorgeous an 8.5.
This is my favorite PJ album. Like prindle, I think her first two were
wildly over-rated. (I had this feminist bi-sexual dyke girlfriend in
high-school that made me listen to angry riot grrl shit all the time.
Trust me. They both suck pretty bad.) 'Bring You My Love' is really
good, but sounds a little dated in that whole grunge-guitar way -- just
not quite textured enough for me. But 'Desire', well...
When I first heard Is This Desire I really hated it, I thought it was dull.
But now I adore it, the opening track (?) where she sings '10,000 miles away
he walks upon the road' is a moody delight. I also love 'A Perfect Day,
Elise' (the first PJ item I ever bought) and The Wind.
Really, really good. She messes with all kinds of moods on this one and it pays off. The songs are dark, empty (but in a good way), atmospheric and strong. Her minimalism reached a limit here. Her muted balladry is really beautiful and the music is great for rainy days and lonely Autumn nights. 8/10
7/10
this was my first p. j Harvey album, i was watching VH-1 and the lead singer of incubus was highly recommending stories from the city stories
from the sea, then the next day i saw it at my library and picked it up. i was really suprised at how mellow and smooth it was but I soon fell in
love with it (the way I got to bring you my love was I saw a VH-1 show where both Henry Rollins and Michael stipe drooling over it I decided it
both Henry Rollins and Michael stipe love something that much it has to be great). I still think it is one of her best albums song by song, a really
high 9.
I have been a fan of Polly's from the beginning when
I was in the military stationed in Japan and she was
swinging her hair in a graceful arc at me in a rack in
a PX. She is simply a chick who writes good songs,
good music and rocks hard even when she doesn't rock
hard. Why some fans think every subsequent cd must
sound the same as the previous one amuses me to no
end. Good Fortune must be one of the simplest and yet
most beautiful and uplifting hard rock songs I have
ever heard.
The album leaves something to be desired, but it's not bad at all. I agree with Mark's rating, but it's not that Heart-ish as he made it sound. Thomas Edward Yorke (the most brilliant British man out there) guests in three songs, and they're all the better for it. The duet is amazing. The quieter material is really soothing and the louder material is rocking. What more can one want? 7/10
Great review, and shame on me for not following through with my promise to send you a burn. I like this album better than you do, but your comments are hilarious (as always) and not far off base (not quite so "as always"). Really, though, "Shame" and several of the other tunes deserve better than a "5." A solid seven, if you ask me - which you didn't. So, post this at your own discretion.
"This is actually her best album."
I think you were a bit too strict with the reviews. I think that Polly Jean
Harvey is such a wonderful, talented artist and she sais what she feels in a
way she wants...in a way no other artist does and it's a shame that some people
can't see the talent and polly's uniqueness in her music and lyrics.
Quite good, actually. It plays as a sampler of all her previous styles and moods. Perfect for people who want all their PJ's in one.
Mark first gave this one an eight, then a nine, then finally made up his mind and gave it a ten. I still believe that this ten should go to "To Bring You My Love", since it's her best effort, but I'm glad that my favorite misogynist homophobe likes Polly Jean's vocals on this record along with the superb songwriting. All the songs are good. Her voice is much stronger than on previous records and her lyrics are dead on. These songs are filled with loneliness, hope and beauty. I wish that some of the songs were as strong in the studio as they were live, but it's just a minor complaint. But hey, Peej won a ten on a Prindle scale. I give it a high 7.
If you look closely, you'll see all SORTS of PJ Harvey CDs for sale after clicking this tiny link of love!