Entertainment For Lively Minds
How have I managed to avoid PJ Harvey for all these years?
I was beginning to think that I was getting too old for all this modern music malarkey, so little has appealed to me of late that I was fearful of being stripped of my credentials in this parish. Then along came “Let England Shake” which I downloaded as a two for a tenner deal via Amazon alongside Nick Lowe’s offering.
Rarely having the patience for an entire album all the way through these days, I can report that I have played it through in its entirety three times in the last 24 hours. Poor old Nick Lowe hasn’t got a look in yet.
It’s tremendous stuff. The music is incredibly atmospheric and the vocal bonus is that I can even understand the lyrics as sung.
Rather tongue in cheek I was going to say that it’s the album that Kate Bush might have made if she’d staid with the programme. Who knows, maybe she will.
Having never experienced her before, on the strength of enjoying this album so much, am I likely to be disappointed with her back catalogue?
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If you start at the beginning
and get Dry next you will not be disappointed. An awesome debut and one of my favourite albums ever.
This was my introduction to PJH
Excellent.
(Down By The Water)
LES is probably her mo0st divisive album
among her fans between love and hate. I'm firmly on the love side.
Her other Mercury winner 'Stories From The City' is her most accessible. I like her last album with John Parrish a lot 'A Man And A Woman....' as well as Bring His Love and the early stuff. all accept Uh Her Huh are winners for me and even that has a couple of gems on it.
Agreed with the guys above
Go for Dry first, then To Bring You My Love, then Stories from the City...
Of the others: White Chalk is an interesting, but not always riveting, diversion into gentle piano-led stuff; Uh-huh Her and Is This Desire have some good tracks but neither of them hold it together as albums for me; Rid of Me and, especially, the 4-track Demos, are very, very raw, and best left until you have developed your liking for PJ (tho' 50ft Queenie is an awesome track)!
The two collaborations with John Parrish are worth checking out too. There is some very good stuff on the last one (A Woman A Man Walked By).
The stand-out track
from A Woman a Man Walked By, in my view, is Black-hearted Love. So here it is in all its bouncy castle glory.
Ah, beat me to it, Mr Presentable
I'll never forget the sight of her performing Down by the Water in a pink catsuit at Glastonbury.
So here's another side of Pol, inspired by something Nick Cave said to her. But what did he actually say? Any suggestions? "Polly, you've got a bit of jam on your chin, mate"? What?
That's quite an image.
If I may, I was also quite taken with this:
*lies down in a quiet room*
In return, here's that catsuit. Brace yourself.
Her and the Cave man
make me hide under the bed until they stop. I can't take a single note either of them have ever made.
Just for you then.
I did a Singles-y spotify thing
http://open.spotify.com/user/wadeywade/playlist/5kQ1AaOzWuVkzfg75nKzj4
Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea
..is a stunning piece of work. It tends to get the could shoulder from the Polly Purists because it's her most commercial album, but don't let that put you off, (£3.97 on Amazon - I'll refund you if you don't love it).
It tends to get the cold shoulder
because PJ herself seems to really dislike it and because it sounds like Patti Smith. I, however, like you, absolutely love it. I also love Patti Smith.
Is she still indie disco?
This is the first and last I've heard (as opposed to "heard about")
Nothing to add
Just want to give yet another voice to the chorus.
Buy everything. Even the less remarkable stuff knocks the spots off most of what's come out this century.
She's an artist
She's got everything she needs
She's an artist, she don't look back
She's got everything she needs
She's an artist, she don't look back
She can take the dark out of nighttime
And paint the daytime black.
That's really good
You should make a song out of it.
An update!
Thanks to all for the recomendations. A visit to the Barbican Library has provided me with a weeks loan of
To bring you my love
Dry
Is this desire
Uh Huh her
4 Track demos
Now if only there was some way I could get them onto my iPod.... Hmmmm, I wonder.....