xp. bono isn't british
― trickle-down ergonomics (jim in glasgow), Monday, 21 March 2016 20:04 (eight years ago) link
right but he's definitely in that cultural milieu
― wizzz! (amateurist), Monday, 21 March 2016 20:05 (eight years ago) link
of people competing for the mercury prize or whatever
― wizzz! (amateurist), Monday, 21 March 2016 20:06 (eight years ago) link
maybe we could like wait until the actual album is released before rushing to declare it "cringeworthy"
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Monday, 21 March 2016 20:07 (eight years ago) link
i didn't declare anything cringeworthy
but yes this thread including my posts is incredibly boring and pointless
― wizzz! (amateurist), Monday, 21 March 2016 20:11 (eight years ago) link
that song is v v cringy sorry
― kurt schwitterz, Monday, 21 March 2016 20:12 (eight years ago) link
yesterday someone showed me the book that goes along with the album. pretty intense. and labor intensive! apparently let england shake wasn't enough of an art project. or work of art. this thing is much more involved it seems.
― scott seward, Monday, 21 March 2016 22:33 (eight years ago) link
also, i would just like to say that my friend jess puts out excellent music under the name Schurt Kwitters. Kurt Schwitterz reminded me of that...
https://www.discogs.com/Schurt-Kwitters-Schurt-Kwitters/master/410871
― scott seward, Monday, 21 March 2016 22:36 (eight years ago) link
the song about an ALCOHOLIC NATIVE AMERICAN WOMAN who has abandoned TRADITIONAL SUMAC AND OTHER HERBS is the most stupid thing pj harvey has ever written
― cher guevara (lex pretend), Thursday, 14 April 2016 17:34 (eight years ago) link
for every moment where this works musically there are like 4-5 where i'm trying my hardest to block out the lyrics
― cher guevara (lex pretend), Thursday, 14 April 2016 17:37 (eight years ago) link
hoo boy
― i like to trump and i am crazy (DJP), Thursday, 14 April 2016 17:51 (eight years ago) link
― cher guevara (lex pretend), Thursday, April 14, 2016 1:34 PM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
This is...discouraging, but I'm still holding out hope. Like I want to believe that she can find a way to make even a lyric that fits that description work somehow.
Also, I've liked both advance tracks.
― rhymes with "blondie blast" (cryptosicko), Thursday, 14 April 2016 17:56 (eight years ago) link
pj writing/singing about my town is surreal/disappointing in the same way that meeting someone you've long admired is usually a weird letdown.
my guess is that, when she refers to the woman in the "redskins cap" and a "new painkiller for the native people" she's actually referring to african-americans.
but yeah, these songs kinda radiate cluelessness and have a creative writing 101 feel to them so far imo.
― dc, Thursday, 14 April 2016 18:11 (eight years ago) link
not trying to hear you
― Keks + Nuss (contenderizer), Thursday, 14 April 2016 18:35 (eight years ago) link
Scared to listen to this. Everything about it seems very "101," and the Pitchfork review, while bending over backwards to be as positive as possible (which is fair, because Harvey is such a hugely talented artist she deserves the benefit of the doubt), basically shrugs and boils it down to a bunch of ideas with no clear intent/impact in search of the right medium. She sold tickets to watch her record it, released a book of poetry, now comes the album, next comes the documentary ... maybe it'll be a dance piece after that? Photo exhibition?
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 14 April 2016 18:46 (eight years ago) link
― cher guevara (lex pretend),
daaaaamn
― kurt schwitterz, Thursday, 14 April 2016 19:05 (eight years ago) link
Yikes. Does she have a shitty new friend who is giving her bad advice?!
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Thursday, 14 April 2016 19:55 (eight years ago) link
an alcoholic Native American woman
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 14 April 2016 20:47 (eight years ago) link
From the Spin review:
The marching “Medicinals” suffers again though, for pairing an attractive tune with an ogling description of a disabled woman in a Redskins cap that makes it difficult to tell if Harvey’s more disgusted by the woman’s existence or her predicament
http://www.spin.com/2016/04/review-pj-harvey-the-hope-six-demolition-project/
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 14 April 2016 21:03 (eight years ago) link
all these reviews make the record sound terrible but rate it 7+
― dc, Thursday, 14 April 2016 21:21 (eight years ago) link
White Chalk is still the worst PJ Harvey album by far, that 2007 bundle of piano ruminations with names like “Dear Darkness” tucked inside tossed-off album art.
:|
― HYPERLINK TO RAP GENIUS (BradNelson), Thursday, 14 April 2016 21:25 (eight years ago) link
anyway i am looking forward to apprehensively listening to this
white chalk is amazing though
(and WAIT @ naming any album other than STFC PJH's worst prior to this)
― cher guevara (lex pretend), Thursday, 14 April 2016 21:31 (eight years ago) link
laura snapes' review in pitchfork is totally excellent though
― HYPERLINK TO RAP GENIUS (BradNelson), Thursday, 14 April 2016 21:32 (eight years ago) link
white chalk is amazing thoughotm
― tylerw, Thursday, 14 April 2016 21:34 (eight years ago) link
this one has a few great musical moments for sure ("the ministry of defence"! and the "wade in the water" section of "river anacostia") but its overall musical identity isn't blowing me away, and the concept...idk, applying the detached journalistic voice that was perfect for LES to current situations doesn't work at all, it's less "inhabiting historic ghosts/haunting battlefields from the future" and more "rich white lady's observations make u think"
― cher guevara (lex pretend), Thursday, 14 April 2016 21:36 (eight years ago) link
i really like it and i said so in my review but i guess non-new york broadsheets don't get traction these days :P
― maura, Thursday, 14 April 2016 22:05 (eight years ago) link
maura's review:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/music/2016/04/13/album-review-harvey-the-hope-six-demolition-project/HiXiNnGmSRElV1coSPzBYN/story.html
― dc, Thursday, 14 April 2016 22:08 (eight years ago) link
SFTC is perfect imo
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, 14 April 2016 23:14 (eight years ago) link
Is that acronym "Songs From the City?" Yeah, I love it. It's the one I listen to the most after "Dry," by some margin.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 14 April 2016 23:47 (eight years ago) link
Stories, rather.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 14 April 2016 23:49 (eight years ago) link
yeah, if some of the lyrics on sftc were a little bit dumb, it was in a way that i guess didn't matter to me.
fully admit that my frame of reference doesn't do this new one any favors. but I don't have to love everything my favorites make.
― dc, Friday, 15 April 2016 00:04 (eight years ago) link
i didn't like stories for years because it seemed entirely too indebted to Patti Smith but now I think it's great.
― akm, Friday, 15 April 2016 00:34 (eight years ago) link
that said, this new one doesn't sound good at all.
― akm, Friday, 15 April 2016 00:36 (eight years ago) link
iirc lex is a staunch contrarian when it comes to stories
― art baengels (monotony), Friday, 15 April 2016 01:41 (eight years ago) link
i know a LOT of ppl who dislike stories, the only album i can think of where as many ppl i know got of the bus is tbyml (and a lot of ppl got on there so it kinda counteracts it). i love it, it's her new morning.
― balls, Friday, 15 April 2016 01:47 (eight years ago) link
I can understand not digging stories…in early 2000s NYC, you heard it in bars and clubs more than any record other than Is this it, and I was often annoyed with the Thom Yorke duet. I'm surprised that Herr Pretend holds her in any esteem whatsoever, given that she represents certain '90s brit-rock verities.
I have not fucked with White Chalk or LES, barring hearing a song here and there, not via my own agency…is it right that she's not necessarily trying to sing, like, conventionally well & powerfully any longer? Dance Hall has "Dead Urn" which is an olympian achievement vocally… but it seems like she's trying sound like an elderly woman or a child on the tunes I've heard, and she sings quite plainly on these new ones, which I suppose suits the allegedly unadorned conceit. But goddamn did she used to let that shit rip.
― veronica moser, Friday, 15 April 2016 03:06 (eight years ago) link
I remember that I read somewhere, maybe an interview, that given her voice and her guitar were her most powerful tools, she tried to do White Chalk by minimising both as an experiment
― a hairy, howling toad torments a man whose wife is deathly ill (James Morrison), Friday, 15 April 2016 03:24 (eight years ago) link
White Chalk is pretty amazing, I love that record.
― akm, Friday, 15 April 2016 04:36 (eight years ago) link
so no consensus then
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 15 April 2016 06:47 (eight years ago) link
i don't dislike stories but it really pales in comparison to the rest of her discography, i don't see how this is contrarianism
i've never had the sense that it was held in particular high esteem by PJH fans, just by rock critics/casual fans who were relieved that she briefly wasn't scary or difficult
― cher guevara (lex pretend), Friday, 15 April 2016 07:53 (eight years ago) link
Stories was my way in; nowhere near my favourite now, but I have a lot of affection for it.
― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Friday, 15 April 2016 10:43 (eight years ago) link
But anyway, I've not been put off by the discussion around the new album ad will be picking up the album later today. I thought it was pretty well accepted that Polly never sings as herself; she's said repeatedly in the past that all her songs are in character, and though she's obviously not giving interviews these days I've no reason to doubt that. So I'm looking forward to this, albeit with very minor reservations after loving LES dearly.
― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Friday, 15 April 2016 10:45 (eight years ago) link
Uh Huh Her is worse than Stories, you'd be forgiven for forgetting that one even existed though. I'm not that keen on To Bring You My Love either but obviously that's canonical Polly for a lot of people.
― Matt DC, Friday, 15 April 2016 10:55 (eight years ago) link
uh huh her is a great album! and the perfect, perfect follow-up to stories, it was a great relief
― cher guevara (lex pretend), Friday, 15 April 2016 11:08 (eight years ago) link
I loved/love the first two so much that I was totally befuddled by how crazy people went over To Bring You My Love, though when she reinvented herself as this sort of crazy flamenco dancer confrontationist to tour behind it I thought it worked really well.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 15 April 2016 12:11 (eight years ago) link
I can't remember a damn thing about Uh Huh Her and I've owned it for more than a decade. I can still remember pretty much all the songs on Stories.
― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Friday, 15 April 2016 12:21 (eight years ago) link
just watched some clips of PH performing on the Uh huh her tour, and now I dimly remember that there were snide suggestions that she was trying look and act like Karen O, seeing as clearly the latter had been quite fond of the former…does anyone else remember that? now I see that in her band at the time she had the young man who's now in the RHCP and got into the suckass Rock Hall based on like 2 years in the band.
― veronica moser, Friday, 15 April 2016 13:05 (eight years ago) link
Say what you want about RHCP and the Rock Hall, but Josh Klinghoffer is pretty cool.
― how's life, Friday, 15 April 2016 13:19 (eight years ago) link
he's like a a pro dude! i would expect PJ Harvey would have pro dudes. what's wrong w.that?
― rockpalast '82 (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 15 April 2016 13:51 (eight years ago) link