POLLy Jean Harvey - The PJ Harvey results thread

The Dry Demos are out. I like them but most of them - except maybe Dress - miss the power of the final album. There is no sudden outburst of guitar noise like on Hair. There is not a lot of rhythm. Some of them are even fragile. An excellent production job which gave the album this raw brutal sound. On the other side it is very rewarding to listen to the demos where her voice is the main instrument.

https://media1.jpc.de/image/w600/front/0/0602508782473.jpg

Dress in the whole-band arrangement is prog-levels of overlapping rhythmic oddity, but still so blunt. Was surprised to hear bowed strings in the demo.

The To Bring You My Love demos are out and they're a much more fleshed-out effort than the Dry or Rid of Me demos indeed - filled with keyboards and drum machines, with pretty much whole arrangements worked out at the home recording stage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YG33LTqUCs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc8ircFYfr4

Oh boy, the artwork for those demos. The back photo is pretty nice too. I was in high school when I got 4-track demos and I crushed on her so hard based on the music and that album cover. She still sends me into a cloud of pubescent longing.

I think I got this and Guyville within a month of each other and together they blew my mind. I had never been exposed to complex female perspectives before in music. It took me a while to realize that Highway 61 was a cover!

The Dry vinyl reissue isn't too great. Lots of background noise in some songs. Supposedly the Euro pressing is better.

Sorry to hear that about the reissue.

I had thought about getting CD versions of the first two albums, which I own on vinyl. I haven't seen them yet anywhere.

The Dry vinyl reissue isn't too great.

Yeah, the US one is kind of crap. The Rid of Me one is much better. Not sure if I'm gonna get any of the rest of what's to come.

I bought the To Bring You My Love reissue yesterday, but haven't had the chance to listen to it yet.

Just FYI I have the European pressing of the Dry reissue and it sounds great, no problems whatsoever.

listening on streaming to the Bring You My Love demos (bummer about the vinyl was just about to order it glad I clicked here first)

but wow, I love this, she's the master of demos

Finally got the chance to listen to the TBYML vinyl and it's excellent.

Stories.. demos etc

https://pjharvey.kontraband.store/products/stories-from-the-city-stories-from-the-sea-demos-lp

I'm happy to get the chance to have all the albums on vinyl (just need this and Uh Huh Her now), but I'm not forking out for any more of the demo albums. The To Bring You My Love demos have minor differences in arrangements, but in terms of song structure, composition, phrasing etc they are identical bar by bar to the final release. I can't imagine this will change with later releases. Is she going to put out Uh Huh Her and White Chalk demo albums? They already sound like demos! (Don't get me wrong, I like them, but still...)

It’d be nice if there were CD versions of these reissues.

There's a CD edition of the just-released Is This Desire? Demos set--I just ordered a copy from my local shop; am really into the drum machine backings on pretty much this whole thing, and am glad that it's (at the time of this post) all up on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQxxfsns0ho

Think he might have meant CD reissues of the actual albums.

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.