POLLy Jean Harvey - The PJ Harvey results thread

I don't even know what suspecterrain is referring to!

Was it too many tracks from Stories that broke the camel's back after 10 years?

super-pissed that 'a woman a man walked by' got shafted i guess

it's realy sad, he was beaten down by fleshy assholes

"I put up with 10 years of this shitiness and then you fleshy assholes decide that A Place Called Home is better than On Battleship Hill? That's finally it. Fuck you all to hell!"

on the plus side, I have a new display name

Not quite Chaki level in terms of departure.

"You will taste on far too much asshole flesh!"

http://www.nothisown.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/574906-lotr_two132christopherlee_super.jpg

i knew we shouldn't have made this poll experts only :/

I love when someone makes a post about quitting and it's the first time you've ever seen them post.

Gosh, suspecterrain was a real poster - I guess that kind of genius post only gets made once, but I still feel bad at never having noticed him before.

lol @ ilx as a bastion of "good taste". maybe in cat gifs.

But seriously, this had to be one of the least offensive threads in ILX history.

Pop music in itself is not dis-satisfying, but i tend to feel that it best serves children, the infirm, and neophytes.

― suspecterrain, Saturday, March 30, 2013 7:33 PM (1 month ago)

tick...tick...tick...

Didn't vote, because I've never really overcome my disappointment with Bring You My Love, though I kept trying until Un Hunh. This thread has got me listening, and I shouldn't have oughta quit. Turns out I like White Chalk and Let England as much as the first two. Didn't get drawn in as they were being promoted, but I'm getting them now.

― bendy, Wednesday, May 1, 2013 10:19 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Thought this was a great poll/thread; hooray to NBS for doing it! My feelings mirror bendy's; TBYML was a major let-down, but I have some serious revisiting to do (although I recently listened to UHH again and nope, still can't get into it).

Also, Steve Vaughan never gets enough love. His bass was their secret weapon, and those first two records would be a lot less frightening/engaging without it.

My feelings mirror bendy's; TBYML was a major let-down, but I have some serious revisiting to do...

i went through exactly the same trajectory, and i can't urge you to revisit to bring you my love and is this desire? strongly enough. they're excellent albums, not perfect, but with lots to appreciate.

That used to be me too ... I remember being really stoked to hear the new PJH single and making a trip to a music store just to hear it. I was hoping for another "Rid Of Me", so "Down By the Water" was a total letdown. It took me years to really appreciate it (once I finally accepted that the PJH of 1991-3 was never coming back).

I remember hearing "Down By The Water" on the radio and thinking, "This better be the worst song on the record. Or not PJ Harvey."

I will revisit. But I never wanted her to repeat Dry and ROM, just to get more skronky in that vein (one reason I love 4TDs).

"Down by the Water" might be the worst song on the record but as with all songs of the 120 Minutes pedigree I have endless nostalgia for it.

'down by the water' was the first PJH song i ever heard and i was totally enchanted/mystified by that buzzy synth line. i still love it. the title track on TBYML was the hardest for me to accept at first, that guttural growling took some growing into

these TBYML reactions are insane to me; I basically bought that album blind based on how much I liked her previous work and was entranced from the first notes of the title track

when rid of me came out, i remember reading so much about "pj harvey the BAND, not pj harvey the person" that it started to sound a bit defensive. you wouldn't stick your name on your band unless you viewed it as not just yours, but actually YOU, a direct extension of your inner self. with that in mind, i figured pj-harvey-the-band wouldn't last long, that she'd soon want to establish herself as an independent artist. so i wasn't at all surprised when she did just that and recorded to bring you my love. but i was still bummed, cuz i was way more into bands than singer-songwriters, more into scabrous rock, noise & punk than artful pop. at this remove, those divisions don't mean much to me, and i can hear what i was missing way back when. growing up isn't all bad.

i always did like "down by the water", though. still do. one of the best tracks on the album, imo, even after all the overplaying.

i was a huge nick cave and zooropa fan so tbyml was right up my alley

This the my last day on ILM. This poll reveals just how much shitiness in musical taste permeates this fine upper-crust of musical pros. And it's not just these judgments; in 10 years of reading and posting, only a handful of meaningful discussions have helped me discover new music and reveal new understandings. You experts are just as unsophisticated the pablum devouring public, and my early respect for many contributors to this site has been beaten down under the girth of far too much asshole flesh. Good fucking riddance.

― suspecterrain, Thursday, May 2, 2013 9:07 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mG8rUGhxtjo/TienW98ateI/AAAAAAAAF7c/L89kgODTgGs/s1600/funny_maraca_pic.jpg

If that 10 years is right, the poor dude invested 6 years' lurking before working up the nerve for his first post. This gesture seems so noble now.

I've contributed plenty; learn to use the search tool. Under this name and "christoff" I have contributed and authored many discussions. Celebrating my exit without even knowing what I've put forth typifies the level of ignorance I've come to expect from this site. Piss off.

christ off

I'm not celebrating your exit, I'm celebrating your return. Booming post.

• I've contributed plenty; learn to use the search tool.
• Under this name and "christoff" I have contributed and authored many discussions.
• Celebrating my exit without even knowing what I've put forth typifies the level of ignorance I've come to expect from this site.
• Piss off.

or just a cornucopia of board descriptions

http://holebi.info/phpnews/images2/Christoff.jpg

But what did Christoff make of Down by the Water?

i would like to know the specific complaints wrt this poll; what ignominy was the final insult

I believe it was NBS counting the votes for Man-Size and Man-Size Sextet together

tbf that was unsophisticated

If there is a complaint to be had here (and this is nitpicking at its finest), mine would be that it seems like many people who voted played it safe went for the most obvious things. Not a lot of votes for White Chalk or Dance Hall but tons from Let England Shake and Stories — why is that?

And besides, 'Civil War Correspondent' got the shaft. I voted for a Desire b-side as my #1, knowing that I would probably be the only person to vote for that song, but 'Civil War Correspondent' deserved at least a place in the upper half of the rankings.

Again, this is all very much nitpicking and I thank NB+S for their time. Off to cast my ballot for the Sonic Youth poll!

many people who voted played it safe went for the most obvious things.

if only i liked less obvious things

"Why is that?"

Because they're well-known albums and not everyone who votes in polls knows every album inside out. I agree with you that this poll, like most of them, isn't very good at picking out underrated gems even further down the list, but short of making everybody work through the back catalogue before voting, what can you do?

lol why is it that her more popular and acclaimed albums got more attention than her less popular and acclaimed albums?

you'd think a consensus poll of all things would allow the obscurities to win the day. How weird!!!!!

I hope suspecterrain is ok, the way he went out was a little irrational.

Bands That Bow Out Gracefully

I thank NB+S for their time

I liked this sentiment, and I imagine nb&s are quite pleased about it too

Definitely my favourite trio on ILX

and i can't urge you to revisit to bring you my love and is this desire? strongly enough. they're excellent albums, not perfect, but with lots to appreciate.

I do like ITD pretty well, I'd now rank it after the first two and last two, but it doesn't quite hold together for me. TBYML still irks me, though there's plenty of parts I like. One of the things I adored about her early stuff was how she used the Birthday Party/Bad Seeds tools, but reflected them back - junkie-artschool-horror, but coming from a sober, shy female. TBYML was like she passed through mirror, no longer twisting the already-twisted blues, just trying to equal it.

these are some interesting thoughts, bendy. in that logic isn't tbyml the first album where she is really herself, where she has truly found her voice? could that be a reason why that album to me - ep. the tite song - sounds so emotionally warm and totally different from the first two? making that album seems to have taken a load of her mind. after all that raw blues-processing finally she had come home. btw "white chalk" seems another turning point in her career as a musician.

Definitely my favourite trio on ILX

We are a team of lawyers

It's a testament to her artistry that every recent album signals a phase she doesn't bother to pursue.

Yes. It seemed that every album was a reaction against the previous one, up to Uh Huh Her, which was anti-Stories but also kind of a mess. I'd guess she realised at that point she was in danger just carry on putting out Uh Huh Hers for the rest of her career - collections of PJ Harvey-ish songs - with diminishing returns. This is the fate of a lot of musicians. The last two albums seemed to recognise that she had to raise her game, come up with more coherent ideas about why a new album ought to exist. Two years have passed since Let England Shake, so I hope that means we'll hear something about a new one some time in the next 12 months. The last two were notably high-concept records, and it's fascinating to speculate about what the big idea for the next one might be.