PJ Harvey : Classic or Dud

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.

It sounded pretty cool at 33 though, maybe better.

I'm listening to 'White Chalk' just now. Silence is definitely perhaps the best. Most of the album got a bad reception live however. Mostly piano

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

-- jaymc, Monday, 5 November 2007 16:36 (2 hours ago) Link

And she's right, of course. :-)

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 really went off her around then - the touring band were a bunch of session muso muppets (apart from Rob Ellis), while the album did not seem to have anything interesting on it. I might go back to it some time, but it has kind of killed my interest in acquiring more PJH product. which is sad, for me anyway, as I really really loved her stuff for quite some time.

Anyone ever heard her cover of Dylan's "Shot of Love?" It's marvelous, a paranoid rant with a slight delay on the vocals, really powerful, on a collection of b-sides.

hahaha at ned image bomb upthread

Dry is a fucking awesome record. The playing and recording is amazing. How is it a debut? What a voice, what guitars, what songs. She's never made a bad record, I don't think, although some are, obviously, better than others. Peaks = Dry, Rid Of Me, TBYMY, and, in songwriting terms, SFTCSFTS (not keen on the production here, though). Dance Hall At Louse Point confuses me. I think I like it a lot.

Classic then dud. Rid of Me is amazing and some of the sessions from around that time are fantastic too. Then she went boring. Dance Hall At Louse Point also v good.

i was just thinking of the development from "dry" to "white chalk". whereas "dry" was a record boasting of energy and power of an extrovert, innocent person "white chalk" sounds like the album of someone who has been beaten, someone who is depressed and tormented, someone who has had a life behind him. those two are so totally opposite in mood, it is stunning. actually i am not sure which one i prefer. but "white chalk" was definitely my favourite album from last year.

interesting point, alex. i just wish she didn't sound so emotionally restrained/stilted on White Chalk; the few live versions of those songs i've seen on youtube and such blow the album versions away in every conceivable sense (ok, they're not as spooky as the official versions, but so what? trading emotional depth and power for mere spookiness was a serious mistake on her part, imho, obviously.). actually, if she were to release a live version of that album--with more or less full band accompaniment, i would hope--it would probably be one of my faves too.

I certainly don't hear White Chalk as stilted, it's actually one of the most intense albums I've heard for years. Deep and spooky don't seem incompatible, especially not for PJ. Still, I'm sure there must be quite a few full length live recordings floating around out there, if you dig for them. I'll check out the youtube stuff in the meanwhile.

me too i don't hear "white chalk" as stilted at all. "dry" may be much more artificial if you consider her as not the typical rock chick. wasn't she striking a pose on "dry"? i don't think she is this kind of man-eating femme fatale. but i am curious concerning "white chalk" live. i once went to munich about 400 km from where i live to see giant sand. they were great but she totally blew them away. what a stage presence!

well, i don't think she's some kinda victorian-era ghost either.

ok, maybe mannered would've been a more appropriate adjective to use there. also, i do mean in comparrison with her earlier/live work, obviously; i'm not saying she's suddenly gone Kraftwer or some such.

Her collaborations with Josh Homme a few years back misled me to believe she was ready to rock again. Please Polly please, it's been eight years. Enough with the chamber music!

Uh Huh Her is hardly chamber music?

yes!!!

xp

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