POLLy Jean Harvey - The PJ Harvey results thread

Life is complex. Sex is complex. Which is why the track sounds ominous as fuck.

"this is love" is one of the few genuinely incredible songs on stories

(can't remember whether it was incredible enough to make my ballot)

I wouldn't vote for it today but in the early 2000s it was the track I'd burn on CD-Rs for PJ skeptics.

9th best song on Stories, imo

http://www.billythefish.com/mediac/400_0/media/Uncle~Peter.jpg

Back to the documentary a minute. I don't get how this thing exists but even heads don't know about it. Any indie band from that era that did anything - an art gig, bit-part in a sitcom, even just a trip to America - had it hyped to fuck in the music press.

Was there an entirely separate scene somewhere that she was a part of? I'm having trouble placing where she came from and who her audience was. They're flicking through Q at one point, but I don't think it's that.

33. In The Dark Places (Let England Shake) - 158 points, 8 votes

^^^ a marvel

re: "this is love"

it's a damn good song. didn't vote for it, but see no crime. live, it kind of sounds like "chinese rocks".

OK, This Is Love is better and rawer (esp in the context of Stories) than I remembered it. I'm just surprised it's anyone's favourite.

I wonder how many more Let England Shake tracks will place. Maybe just Words and the title track, though I voted for Hanging in the Wire as well.

if "On Battleship Hill" doesn't place you are all insane

It'll place, it's a masterpiece

Yeah I was really surprised by how low Written On The Forehead placed. I'd guess at mad vote splitting with virtually every song getting at least a vote.

in the dark places was my number 6 i think? my top track on LES, just amazing, and criminally low here imho

so y'all don't rate "the glorious land"? i figured it was a lock, easily my favorite thing on the album.

LES is so of a piece that I have trouble remembering songs -- one of the few albums I like about which this is a compliment.

I'd like to see Battleship place too but I had to draw the line at five songs on my ballot, otherwise I'd have voted for pretty much the whole thing.

"the glorious land" is top-tier LES for me, i expect it pretty high

"written on the forehead" is ok and works in the album, esp as the one song that drags the album into the (relatively) present day, but as a song it's also about as inessential as LES gets: i still remember thinking "oh noooooo, PJH has finally gone bad" when it was the lead single

i definitely don't think LES is too much of a piece that the (best) songs don't work by themselves

Written was my #3. That Niney sample works insanely well.

32. Send His Love To Me (To Bring You My Love) - 159 points, 7 votes

love the rolling organ

hmmmmm this was always "c'mon billy" but less good to me

do you want Polly Jean to be good to you

http://thefilmexperience.net/storage/1960s/TheHustlerNewman.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1302192205001

31. The Whores Hustle And The Hustlers Whore (Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea) - 165 points, 1 number one, 7 votes

I voted for this. She sounds nice and angry.

Meanwhile after getting schooled by Jonathan Bernstein last summer, Kevin Williamson writes about civil rights some more.

wrong thread but still apt!

http://www.trendir.com/outdoors/terrain-nyc-unfolding-rooftop-terrace.jpg

30. You Said Something (Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea) - 175 points, 7 votes

?!!! THIRTY?

I figured that would be top 3.

?!!! THIRTY?

I figured it would be NOWHERE TO BE SEEN -_-

stop voting for stories trax y'all

seriously only two ITD? trax have placed and at least a third of the top 30 now needs to consist of that album for justice to be done

I didn't see that getting nearly the same amount of votes as "The Whores Hustle" and "This is Love" ... I definitely didn't see those two songs each getting first place votes while "You Said Something" got none.

at least we are getting these tracks out of the way. i figure there can only be 2 more?

My problem with "You Said Something" is that neither the music nor arrangement are interesting enough to swathe the "something" in mystery.

seriously dng love for "the whores hustle" it's kind of dumb

alfred otm, "something" just feels like a placeholder word that she forgot to replace

"the whores hustle" is a gigantic dumb cliché but it's almost more forgiveable if you embrace it on that level; "you said something" is just blahhhhhhhh

whores hustle has some kind of energy to it i guess? the person who voted it #1 should post an impassioned apologia

i think this is because i am a lol english major and can't get past how dumb the lyrics are. i guess it sounds okay.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XCBOySXv6yw/UDj_8mLFK2I/AAAAAAAAA3c/3aXpuKXIkKc/s1600/iStock_000003880585XSmall%5B1%5D.jpg

i should have voted in this. i am a criminal.

WAIT. "Fountain" is 58 and "Whores Hustle" is 31???????

"The Whores Hustle" is a bit dumb if you just look at the lyrics and view it as a stab at writing a gritty "streets of NYC" kind of thing but it ROCKS so I'd rather not nitpick.

ON my HILL i WAIT for WIND

^ My number 4, love that song, the tension all the way through building up to

my I for
on hill wait wind

― BBC 'Witch' Song (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Thursday, April 25, 2013 5:17 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

29. Big Exit (Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea) - 175 points, 9 votes

ON my HILL i WAIT for WIND
^
exactly

"Beautiful Feeling" is a better take on what she aims for in "You Said Something."