PJ Harvey : Classic or Dud

However, I saw her perform You Said Something on David Letterman show, and I have to say that that particular performance was one of the best television experiences I've had in my life. If you have a Harvey fan for a friend, ask them if they taped it and go see it with them. Truly trancendent.

Love, Jeff

"Uh Huh Her." Thoughts on the new PJ Harvey?

...to keep us going for a while.

However, talking about her as a whole -- I'm going through a relisten of everything building up to the show on Tuesday (might even dig up all the B-sides if I can manage it), and that meant Dry earlier (good songs, couple of great performances, strong without being compelling) and Rid of Me now (holy fuck what a great album -- what a *GREAT* album).

It seems to me that she's very easily slipped over the line that separates initially promising start to ever more unique figure to finally someone with an actual continuing career well over a decade while still remaining interesting, to me at least. And all on the same label still, eight albums on (allowing for the fact that Dry got picked up by Island here and counting the Parish collaboration). Not bad, more thoughts later...

S

"Sheela-na-gig" has been on repeat for several days now in Winamp.

been with her stuff since 'sheela'

live performances in the past have been disappointing against the records *but* a recent live encounter proved her at the at the absolute apex top of her game. great tunes/performance/band the whole thing.

catch while you can...

Dance Hall is indeed a very good album as you said over on the monster thread, but I think it's very subtle and requires a lot of relistening -- it's about the only album that the cover of "Is That All There Is?" aside I can't immediately recall a full song from it, even though I've heard it a lot. Hrm.

(if I were the "heckling type", which is not necessarily the case)

Hey, you better not. ;-)

Seeing her tonight, rah! Hm. Wonder if she'll mention Peel.

I say classic, if only for Rid Of Me (which I only own on tape and never can listen to for this reason, really really REALLY need to get it on CD), To Bring You My Love, and Uh Huh Her. Everything else is pretty good (Dry) to crap (Dance Hall).

I wonder if she'll play the same set. If I weren't packing boxes I'd go again.

I'd imagine he was himself.

(Are you going to be at EJL's party on Saturday? If not, I will pout.)

Pitchfork: Some people talk about songwriting like a trade, and for other artists it seems more muse-driven, more fickle, more spontaneous. Do you ever get writers' block?

Harvey: I've never thought of it as writers' block, but I definitely have periods of greater or lesser activity. I think that's pretty natural. The key is not to panic when you're in one of the troughs of creativity. Because that's so valuable, there's so much learning to be done in that. In the moment, I feel like I'm in that space. It's not resting, it's almost like treading water and gathering information and trusting that it will come around again, and it will. I see it on a greater scale with projects, really. I can see, over the eight or so albums that I've done, some of them reach great peaks of creativity, where everything lines up and works well, but then you go through lesser phases, and then it will happen again. I think that's completely natural. Sometimes you see artists burning very brightly, and they'll have three or four projects in a row that are absolutely incredible. But I think it's very hard for anyone to sustain that time after time after time. Some people do, but they burn out quite quickly. Or they die or something. (laughs) But in lots of artists that I admire, I see the peaks and troughs that (they) move through.

from the Pitchfork interview today.

and all of a sudden, i'm really curious which albums PJ considers to be her peaks and troughs. what do you guys think? does she agree with consensus on her work, or does she love the stuff that's not as universally loved?

she talks later in the interview about burning out on touring "a few years ago" during the Uh Huh Her tours with the full band. does she see Uh Huh Her as a lesser album, due to burning out on playing the songs live, "losing the edge" as she puts it?

I've read that she considers Is This Desire? to be her best.

oh awesome! i don't know about "best" but it's certainly my favorite, and probably the most similar to White Chalk mood-wise. gawwwwd it's underrated in her discography.

i think at one point -- senior year of high school? -- i called Is This Desire? my favorite album of all time.

I think a lot of critics underrated it because it was the follow-up to To Bring You My Love, which was at the top of so many year-end lists in 1995 -- but I agree with you, I think it's great. Maybe not my favorite, but I like it better than TBYML, at any rate.

what's yr favorite?

These days it's probably Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea, although it used to be 4-Track Demos.

i like both of those very much

one of those artists where i can see any album argued (legitimately) as her best. with maybe 1 exception in a 7-8 album career. now *that* is fuckin consistent.

Only today, after about a dozen listens, did I discover that the vinyl version of White Chalk is supposed to be played at 45 rather than 33 EVEN IF IT DOES NOT SAY SO ANYWHERE ON THE FUCKING LABEL.

*I was completely floored

Should say, there was a dozen moments throughout the show where I got goosebumps. Really the most powerful show I've been to in a while.

I was there as well. Stunning set. She has such a deep catalog that there are always going to be great songs not played, but I never felt their absence. Also, a big shoutout to whoever was doing the lighting, especially the F. W. Murnau style shadowplay in "The Garden".

I took a lot of photos during "The Garden." Just awesome.

will this work? photos from the piece hall, halifax earlier in the year.

https://imgur.com/a/vmlm8nt

ah non.

https://imgur.com/a/yaEBMrP

ffs.

The lighting and use of shadows behind her was great in the DC show I saw too. She’s worked this set out and the lights and such well

She didn’t vary the set and add any of the DC related songs she did some years ago from that Community Hope effort. When I saw her in a dc suburb back in 2017 I think she did.

Re: the lighting and staging - the tour is directed by UK theatre director Ian Rickson (who also directed the Hope Six and Let England Shake tours; PJH wrote music for a bunch of his plays) with the staging and backdrop designed by theatre set designers Rae Smith and Paule Constable.

God that version of White Chalk is monumental. So moving, yet so austere.

Only one encore tonight: tour debut of “ Horses in My Dreams” from Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcSJsp7EFcU

Was there too on Sunday at Terminal 5., only about 3-4 rows back. I was just absolutely giddy from the jump, told my wife after the show I don’t think I’ve ever been that close to someone that fucking cool in my entire life. She sounds every bit as amazing as ever and is still shockingly beautiful.As much as I loved hearing all my old favorites like Man Sized and Angelene and everything from TBYML (top 5 album of all-time for me) I still think I enjoyed the opening set of the new album even more, such a captivating piece take all together.

I overlooked the new album, but the tour's definitely sending me back to it (along with the rest of her post-2000 output). The Hope Six Demolition Project still hasn't really connected with me - admirable project, but musically seems lacking - but I Inside the Old Year Dying, Let England Shake and White Chalk all sound excellent.

I think everyone agrees with you on Hope Six

No, as I said upthread (recently), took me a little while, but I really enjoy most of it. The way she works with her observations, free jazz elements etc.

Good new interview about the book, the album, the way of life:
h ttps://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-more-you-write-the-less-youll-know/

I really wish I appreciated her folk-Goth witch of the woods mode more than I do, but I respected her dedication to the bit (as it were) at the show last night. (Just as my pal sarcastically respected the band's dedication to seating.) It was nice to hear a band so hushed they made you pay attention, and allowed her voice to project so clear since, to be real, that's really the focus of said folk-Goth mode, not the somber, relatively dull (imo) arrangements. You could feel the energy of the (too big) room shift both on stage and off when she played a couple of more lively "hits," though that ultimately served to highlight the artifice of it all.

Highlight for me was probably "The Words That Maketh Murder." I wish more of her recent stuff had that sense of urgency.

she went right from that song into "50 Ft. Queenie" here, I still can't comprehend being able to pull off that transition. what a performer.

thought the I Inside section was incredible too. was a little weird to experience in the context of a rock show, felt like when people accidentally clap between movements of a symphony.

There was some (inevitable) asshat that kept yelling out "We love you, Polly Jean Harvey!" in those lulls between songs. Eventually this super fan behind me in the way back started grumbling. "Yeah, we get it." "Ok, you can stop now, it was funny the first time." Etc. And then, toward the end of the set, when she started playing some songs that (let's be honest) people wanted to hear, this super fan behind me yells out "we love you, Polly Jean Harvey!" And I turn around and give her this look, and she just says back, shrugs, and says, "Ok, but that was only my first time yelling it."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3awvikAwMQ

Oh wow. Interesting rendition

Good stuff. Does the rest of the soundtrack sound like this?

In S1 she only did the title song, a Leonard Cohen cover. I imagine this is the same sitch. Iirc the rest of the soundtrack of S1 was just the usual whimsical TV cues.

As much as I enjoy PJ's recent witchy woodsy stuff, it's really enjoyable to hear something so straightforward from her.

It's not an easy song to do well.

Tell that to Paul Young.

Iirc the rest of the soundtrack of S1 was just the usual whimsical TV cues.

all written/co-written and performed by Harvey

Ha, I had no idea, and I even watched season one! I guess it didn't make much of an impression, lol. We'll watch s2 soon enough, I'll have to pay attention. Who is Tim Phillips, her collaborator?

Good question! On discogs he’s the 22nd Tim Ohillips listed, with no other credits.

all written/co-written and performed by Harvey

I’m talking about the released soundtrack, sorry for the confusion.

This one
https://www.discogs.com/release/25047031-PJ-Harvey-Tim-Phillips-Bad-Sisters?srsltid=AfmBOoqFJLFSUTc9PQnri0nnaENI_EtKDXUvevlRcyzUceJkdpXNxy_T

Ah! Sorry for the overreaction.

No worries!

Just found this re Tim Phillips

Tim Phillips, a Canadian-British composer and songwriter, conjures worlds through his music for television, film, and theater. He co-created the West End marvel The Grinning Man, a tale that first graced Trafalgar Studios in December 2017. His scores ripple through screens, from the gentle whimsy of the BBC’s Esio Trot to the electric hum of HBO’s Entourage, and the eerie tones of Starz’s Shining Vale and Becoming Elizabeth. As Co-Artistic Director of Filter Theatre, which he co-founded in 2003, Phillips has shaped groundbreaking productions that have roamed far and wide. His voice even lent warmth to Murray Gold’s Song for Ten in Doctor Who’s 2005 Christmas special, The Christmas Invasion. from a website called post- punk . Com

I’m a die hard fan but have never dipped into her soundtrack work. Anything in particular stand out?

I think her score for a stage adaptation of “All About Eve” that came out a few years ago was pretty good—quite minimal/ambient and not really groundbreaking, but some very beautiful moments; also more nocturnal/moody and less whimsical than the “Bad Sisters” OSTs.

It also features two actual songs, one sung by Gillian Anderson and one by Lily James, but if you skip them it flows better as a nice half-an-hour-long piece.

https://www.nme.com/news/music/pj-harvey-teases-work-on-new-album-and-book-shares-playlist-of-songs-that-inspire-her-3920673

Did y'all see this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYklZDTBoXI