POLLy Jean Harvey - The PJ Harvey results thread

i am still hoping that to bring you my love might win this but that is probably a delusion.

Dry was my number one by a mile (and obviously the first one I heard).

No chance xp

Many may have already seen this -- wicked outfit and a bitchin' guitar (anybody know what kind it is?).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airline_(guitar) or later copy

i loved it but was slightly disappointed, i think 'broken homes' earlier that year had probably warped my expectations

3. To Bring You Love (1995) - 128 points, 3 first places, 22 votes
http://images1.makefive.com/images/entertainment/music/greatest-rock-records-of-all-time/pj-harvey---to-bring-you-my-love-7.jpg

"Teclo" opened this album for me.

of course. but can we do that again with corret title plus cover art?

sorry, there is the cover out of nowhere...

Re: Airline Guitars-Jimmy Reed was also fan in his post Vee Jay years

but can we do that again with corret title plus cover art?
OK - To Bring You My Love

2. Let England Shake (2011) - 132 points, 3 first places, 21 votes
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/5f/Pjharveyletenglandshake.jpg/220px-Pjharveyletenglandshake.jpg

Can you correct the no.10 while you're at it?

1. Rid of Me (1993) - 170 points, 10 first places, 22 votes
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ViblFdHNGDo/T6OrP2h37RI/AAAAAAAADgw/_nbZIB0d9SU/s1600/pj+harvey+rid+of+me.jpg

I didn't vote for it, but can't argue with that landslide

Lots of people were saying before the poll that it would be interesting because there was no real consensus. In the end, 'Rid of Me' won quite convincingly over the others, but it's true that there was hardly anything to separate the next four albums. It's interesting that Dry picked up noticeably fewer votes, but more number ones, than TBYML / IST? / LES.

Who else with so many great records, and without much of a pause between, would have a 1-2 so far apart?

Leonard Cohen might.

possibly the best album albini recorded which is saying something

same 1-2 as me so i am happy.

never heard those dry demos before. 'oh my lover', you came a long way baby

Chronologically? Eighteen years *is* a long time. Johnny Cash?

Let England Shake has the worst cover out of all of these I think. Or second-worst to Uh Huh Her.

i never understood why "rid of me" was supposed to be her token album. for me it represents a huge drop of quality after "dry". there is something cartoonish in the music. all the seemingly more experimentalish character of "rid of me" never conviced me. the songs are lesser songs, the title song is ok but can hardly compete with any of the songs of "dry". can someone try to explain?

Nope

Just let the rollout happen. I sure there will be plenty of chances for people to expand on why songs from Rid of Me are so facemelting awesome.

The songs are far better, as a cohesive statement it's a real work-of-art, the power of it is uncompromising and awesome. Which is not to say I like it (well, I do, but I don't love it) but as a *thing* it is uberimpressive.

It's like George Foreman's fist

that doesn't make sense to me. if you don't love it why the hell did you make it no. 1? in music impressive doesn't mean shit without a personal connection.

you can dance around george foremn's fist you know. muhammad ali did it.

actually ali didn't

ok he had a different winning strategy against foreman i forgot but that still doesn't explain anything.

indeed

I love it and I didn't even vote for albums! Some of the reasons that I love it are personal/biographical and I'm not all that interested in sharing those; the other reasons are related to the general amount of audacity it took to make a record like Rid of Me, then and now. The sensation of listening to it when I was 18-19 years old was unforgettable. You can't look at the cover and tell me that there's not a special record in there.

what the fuck at these results???

i don't think i've ever thought of Rid Of Me as essential - everything about that aesthetic was improved on 4-Track Demos. the production is absolutely horrible. i don't hate it because as ever, it has the songs - and i think i'd go for the ROM version of "50ft Queenie", certainly - but i can't have listened to it front-to-back more than 3 or 4 times in my life (i first heard it in 1995 i guess).

had been hoping Is This Desire would be the surprise ILM-ish #1 - surprised to see it so low. oh well i'll always have the joy of knowing that PJH herself agrees with me.

Uh Huh Her is maybe a minor work but i'll rep hard for it - when it's bad it's rote, but when it's good it's as incredible as peak PJH. i sort of feel its minor status makes it more interesting, somehow, and i'll ALWAYS appreciate its timing - to follow SFTCSFTS with that is kinda why i love PJH as an artist.

sad for Dance Hall, although i guess i didn't expect it to do well - i'm really surprised PJH fans in the '90s would just ignore it. it was the first PJH release after i became a fan, i remember being HYPED.

i find dry a tremendously accomplished debut, but in the end an, uh, dry run for rid of me. the latter is monumental, has great songs, and is menacing as hell (which i appreciate a lot).

it is also pure sex.

i can understand why she changed tack -- she could hardly have taken rid of me any further -- and i love nearly everything she's done. i don't find her more recent stuff as singular or striking, that's all.

i remember being put off by the production when i first heard it, but i came around. it's totally fitting, at any rate

i know ALOT of ppl who basically wrote her off once 'pj harvey' ceased to be the name of the band

she feels so BURIED in Rid Of Me, 4-Track Demos she's just out in front screeching as she should have been all along

i think i agree w/ lex, rid of me has kind of an oppressive sound, really hard to listen all the way through. used to love it but probably would take any of the others before that one.

oppressive is the point

lol at ppl being mystified that an intense rock artist's most intense rock album might prove to be her most popular

have a hunch that 'fool in the rain' didn't win the zeppelin poll either

i don't think ROM is as emotionally intense as ITD or White Chalk (or 4TD!) by a long way

sounds like a poll

lol who's talking emotions

The 5-4 were my 1-2. I bought Dry when it came out without having heard anything off of it, I think I'd read about her somewhere and I liked the cover. Was completely hooked from the opening bars of "Oh My Lover." I prefer its lo-fi spaciousness to Rid of Me's lo-fi assault, but I understand why Rid of Me is the monument.

Is This Desire is, to me, the closest of her albums to Dry in its range and unpredictability.

(the closest of her albums that I have actually listened to -- of the bottom half of the poll, I only have Stories and 4-Track, and I've probably only listened to Stories about twice.)

Airline Guitar -- thanks, gents

I also agree that 4-Track demos is far more affecting than ROM, might even be tuff for it to make my top 10.

Just outta curiosity, is Water a big fave? I love her voice on that song.

i mean 'one more try' by timmy t is more "emotionally intense" than '1969' by the stooges

Her B-Sides, Rarities & Demos is fantastic in a way that (to me) the LPs haven’t been in a minute. Loving this.

Yeah, it's a great compilation. There are a few bizarre choices and weird omissions―but that's to be expected with such big retrospectives―and the third CD (or LPs 5 & 6) is a bit of a mixed bag as it features everything from her early/pre-90s songs, soundtrack work, unreleased demos, to a Nick Cave cover and some one-off singles, but the first two parts are an amazing, surprisingly cohesive listen.