More bands should just track their drums with Albini. I think Trent Reznor did that once, recorded a bunch of drums there and then brought the tapes to another studio. If you're a drummer, you're going to sound good. Everyone else, singers, guitarists. you have to pay attention or he'll just make you sound thin or shitty. He seemed particularly well suited to PJ Harvey at the time. But then, she went from him to a long relationship with Flood, who at one point was the last producer I'd think was well suited to PJ Harvey.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 25 April 2013 04:28 (eleven years ago) link
gedge did something like that with him on the latter two cinerama albums iirc
― mookieproof, Thursday, 25 April 2013 04:31 (eleven years ago) link
I think he tracked the band there then did the strings somewhere else.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 25 April 2013 04:37 (eleven years ago) link
Honestly think that Dry would be a more apt name for Rid of Me. Far too claustrophobic for me in a direct, quasi literal way, it's just not enjoyable to listen to.
― R = J - L (Leee), Thursday, 25 April 2013 05:23 (eleven years ago) link
half the songs are barely even written beyond a riff and an amazing vocal performance. but if there's a better sounding 90s rock record you can please let me know what it is
― it's the distortion, stupid! (alex in mainhattan), Thursday, 25 April 2013 05:43 (eleven years ago) link
i'll measure timei'll measure heighti'll calculatemusical composition substance
― mookieproof, Thursday, 25 April 2013 05:50 (eleven years ago) link
i sort of agree with all the defences of ROM - i don't dislike it or anything, it certainly doesn't elicit even minor eyerolls in the way Stories does - but it's the "preferring it to any of her other albums" thing that is just like wtffffffffff have you even listened to TBYML or ITD
― flamenco drop (lex pretend), Thursday, 25 April 2013 07:29 (eleven years ago) link
It's third after those for me.
― Tim F, Thursday, 25 April 2013 08:56 (eleven years ago) link
I listened to Stories again for this poll and man aside from tracks 2 through 4 is that album ever rmde
― Tim F, Thursday, 25 April 2013 08:58 (eleven years ago) link
"this is love" and "this wicked tongue" are the only stories standouts for me - "good fortune" is pleasant but not very exciting, "a place called home" is pleasant but basically "good fortune" redux
"big exit" absolutely slays live though
― flamenco drop (lex pretend), Thursday, 25 April 2013 09:00 (eleven years ago) link
Anyone who would rank that ahead of anything else in her discography (inc. the John Parish albums) needs their head examined.
― Tim F, Thursday, 25 April 2013 09:01 (eleven years ago) link
seriously, her worst album by such a long way
― flamenco drop (lex pretend), Thursday, 25 April 2013 09:02 (eleven years ago) link
otm!!!!she doesn't really want you to lick her legs, she just wants to say "lick my legs" because it's fun
Totally OTM, I sometimes imagine ROM (the album) as something she wrote just to screw with guys' heads, IOW, if a girl sang you these songs you'd probably shit yourself with fear and/or nervousness and that's the whole point of it all.
My top five albums were exactly the same as the poll results (in the same order too) except with "Stories" in place of ITD. I loved ITD when it came out but have cooled on it a lot over the years.
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Thursday, 25 April 2013 09:30 (eleven years ago) link
I will stan for "You Said Something" and "The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore" until the end of time, especially the latter, because she hasn't shown that kind of fire on record since.
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Thursday, 25 April 2013 09:35 (eleven years ago) link
You haven't heard A Woman A Man Walked By, then?
― Tim F, Thursday, 25 April 2013 09:41 (eleven years ago) link
Stories is my #2, I've got fond memories attached to it but really I just love that guitar sound, I can't even think of any other records from around that time with the same sort of production. (FWIW I only got into PJ when a friend played me Is This Desire? so this was only the second of her albums I'd heard). UHH is definitely my least-favourite but even that's a minor mis-step.
Rid of Me wasn't in my Top 5 but I can understand people who prefer Rocking PJ picking it as their favourite.
― Gavin, Leeds, Thursday, 25 April 2013 09:43 (eleven years ago) link
Uh Huh Her isn't a very good record but it's a fascinating one in terms of her artistic path. It sounds totally like a sketchbook - confused, scrappy, sometimes falling back on old tricks but then, on Desperate Kingdom of Love for example, nailing her new direction. I hear that song and I'm like, oh hello White Chalk & Let England Shake.
Share Lex's lack of enthusiasm about Rid of Me. I thought Is This Desire? would be her Erotica (which it kind of is) and place in the top 3.
My beef with all ILX polls is that the early stuff is always overrated and the later work underrated, even with a career as interesting as PJ's. I'm not sure if that's to do with the lasting intensity of youthful fandom, or the impact of hearing an artist for the first time, but results often (huge generalisation here) confirm the cliche that it's all downhill after your first decade.
― Deafening silence (DL), Thursday, 25 April 2013 10:41 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah. Has she ever recorded a string of tunes as inert as "Good Fortune" and "A Place Called Home" and sequenced them consecutively? Ick.
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 25 April 2013 12:28 (eleven years ago) link
I think "A Place Called Home" is incredible. I remember getting the advance of the album and listening to that track five times in a row on my DIscman on the train. Different strokes, etc. People who hate on this record are as perplexing to me as people who think "White Chalk" is her best.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 25 April 2013 12:32 (eleven years ago) link
yikes, 20 years
anyone else see the tour where Tricky opened?
― Pope Rusty I (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 25 April 2013 12:34 (eleven years ago) link
Do you remember what year that was? 1995?
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 25 April 2013 12:47 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah. One of the shows I most regret missing when I was at university.
― Deafening silence (DL), Thursday, 25 April 2013 12:53 (eleven years ago) link
― Deafening silence (DL), Thursday, April 25, 2013 3:41 AM (2 hours ago)
in the case of artists who eventually arrive at some measure of accessibility and popularity from a more challenging, perhaps punk-rooted starting point, it's almost inevitable. their initial ability to provide the shock of the new becomes the foundation of their artistic legacy. whatever they do afterward that may be interesting in whatever sense, but a great many fans will always reserve a special fondness for the early, calling-card transgressions.
― his army of super young artists produce, (contenderizer), Thursday, 25 April 2013 13:23 (eleven years ago) link
Yes sure, in this specific case, but it's the same trend in practically every poll. Interested to see how the tracks roll out here.
― Deafening silence (DL), Thursday, 25 April 2013 13:24 (eleven years ago) link
There is a difference though - in their early tracks artists tend to rely on big hooks and impact; then later in their careers they explore more subtle pleasures, like form, textures or lyrical themes. It's no surprise that in a tracks poll the former gets the attention - my inclination is that that's more or less right, but later periods produce better albums.
― Ismael Klata, Thursday, 25 April 2013 13:33 (eleven years ago) link
Those things are true, but, again, the weird thing with PJH's discography is Let England Shake at the end of it, getting more attention (and votes) than most of what she's done.
― Eyeball Kicks, Thursday, 25 April 2013 13:47 (eleven years ago) link
in most cases, my favorite albums by my favorite rock & pop artists are from fairly early in their careers. not necessarily their very first public works, but typically from within the first decade of activity. i'd say that most get a 5-10 year run off their initial approach and energy, with long-running artists often managing a commercially and/or artistically successful last gasp or reinvention somewhere around the decade point. even allowing for such reinvention, though, the rock/pop artist who's still producing vital work and reaching a sizable audience twenty years out is a rare creature indeed. with that in mind, let england shake's #2 placement here is p remarkable.
― his army of super young artists produce, (contenderizer), Thursday, 25 April 2013 14:04 (eleven years ago) link
or, uh, what eyeball kicks just said
i agree with stories being her worst but "you said something" and "one line" are breathtaking
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Thursday, 25 April 2013 14:04 (eleven years ago) link
oh wait and i love "beautiful feeling" too, the way it just rumbles out of nothing
thom yorke employed beautifully and subtly on the tracks he's on, two adjectives i'd normally never apply to him
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Thursday, 25 April 2013 14:06 (eleven years ago) link
Has she ever recorded a string of tunes as inert as "Good Fortune" and "A Place Called Home" and sequenced them consecutively?
I love both those tunes and the fact that they're sequenced together
― BBC 'Witch' Song (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Thursday, 25 April 2013 14:53 (eleven years ago) link
I saw it in NYC. Can't remember the venue. Irving Plaza maybe? I saw her on the Stories From The City tour at Bowery Ballroom which was phenomenal.
I do not understand all the contempt for that record here. And people hate Good Fortune? That is just nonsense.
― kornrulez6969, Thursday, 25 April 2013 14:55 (eleven years ago) link
delighted to see so much dissent
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 25 April 2013 15:00 (eleven years ago) link
it's more or less a mainstream rock record, employs thom yorke, seems to issue from a position of domestic contentment, abandons most of the discomfort and experimentation of her other work
i like it a lot, but can see as how it might rub a lot of fans the wrong way
― his army of super young artists produce, (contenderizer), Thursday, 25 April 2013 15:01 (eleven years ago) link
tbh the only song I loathe is the one about horses.
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 25 April 2013 15:04 (eleven years ago) link
It doesn't even rub me up the wrong way. There are a couple of decent songs and a lot of OK but boring ones. The lyrics are embarrassing (to my ears) in lots of places. If Stories had been the first of her records I'd bought (and if it must have been the first for many people), I wouldn't have bothered with her again.
Alfred OTM about Horses ("Horses - In My Dreams" should've been the name of the album haha), but I also hate We Float. What an excruciating pairing.
― Eyeball Kicks, Thursday, 25 April 2013 15:08 (eleven years ago) link
It's only trendy to diss Stories because Beefheart doesn't like it.
― they all are afflicted with a sickness of existence (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, 25 April 2013 15:09 (eleven years ago) link
I love that last pair of songs!
it's more or less a mainstream rock record
But it's a mainstream rock record of the highest caliber. She can write a hook like very few others. Stories is my favorite record of hers for the same reason Born In The USA is my favorite Springsteen: A world-class songwriter filling a record with hits.
I just wish she included Memphis on it, one of the alltime great B-sides.
― kornrulez6969, Thursday, 25 April 2013 15:16 (eleven years ago) link
What is this Memphis? I know not of it, and it's not on iTunes.
― they all are afflicted with a sickness of existence (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, 25 April 2013 15:18 (eleven years ago) link
I mentioned this on some other PJ thread, but this is a good place to bring it up again:
A few years back PJ did the score for a Broadway show that a good friend of mine was involved in. My friend spent a lot of time with her, and said she is the nicest, most down-to-Earth person you could imagine. The polar opposite of her music: she was warm, friendly and unbelievably collaborative. Couldn't say enough nice things about her.
― kornrulez6969, Thursday, 25 April 2013 15:20 (eleven years ago) link
Memphis: her tribute to Jeff Buckley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcSkSTGrubo
"memphis" is awesome, yeah - so is "66 promises", the other "good fortune" b-side
― flamenco drop (lex pretend), Thursday, 25 April 2013 15:23 (eleven years ago) link
Good Fortune and A Place Called Home have such massive singalong choruses, anyone who hates on those must necessarily hate fun.
― R = J - L (Leee), Thursday, 25 April 2013 15:35 (eleven years ago) link
The lyrics are embarrassing (to my ears) in lots of places
yeah this. good fortune is a good example - a catchy if unadventurous tune spoiled by these corny, pat lyrics. so un-peej.
― Roberto Spiralli, Thursday, 25 April 2013 15:48 (eleven years ago) link
She was happy! Happiness is simple. I thought Good Fortune did a great job of articulating the pleasant surprise of things actually going well for once, and also how delicate and fleeting that feeling is. I love that song.
― and that sounds like a gong-concert (La Lechera), Thursday, 25 April 2013 15:57 (eleven years ago) link
feel like "good fortune" is hardly the nexus of terrible lyrics on that record. "big exit" despite its incredible exterior is pretty tough to endure lyrically
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Thursday, 25 April 2013 16:03 (eleven years ago) link
also i really love
things i once thoughtunbelievablein my lifehave all taken plaaaaaace
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Thursday, 25 April 2013 16:04 (eleven years ago) link
I'll admit that Good Fortune is the only song from that album that I listen to at all. Don't remember the others tbh.
"and I feel like some bird of paradise" isn't bad either. At least that's what I think the lyrics are, I'm not 100% sure?!
― and that sounds like a gong-concert (La Lechera), Thursday, 25 April 2013 16:06 (eleven years ago) link
You are missing out on some great songs, La Lechera. My #1 song came from Stories and it's not Good Fortune.
― kornrulez6969, Thursday, 25 April 2013 16:11 (eleven years ago) link