PJ Harvey : Classic or Dud

man the second record she did with Parish in 2009? DO NOT sleep on that, matthewk…that is a bit of a bummer that the creation of Is this Desire was so fraught…or is it? Isn't major creativity often fraught?

the Hope Six record is the only record she has ever made that I've actively disliked…but good grief these demo records are indeed staggering… like 80% of what you hear of the finished product of "A Perfect Day Elise," one of my favorite recordings ever, is right there in that demo… and when Parish talks about how there are two phases, the bare bones sessions and the expensive sessions, the latter were to gussy up "elise"…I wager "Catherine," the other one therein that I treasure, is intact from the former sessions…

The demo of "To Bring You My Love" is so menacing

I'm not a huge fan of the glossy production of Stories but the raw demo version of the album is pretty awesome. Such a strong collection of songs; I don't understand why Beefheart told her these were her weakest demos.

The Let England Shake demos are out today and they're the best installment in the series so far IMO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs_s2IkbGxw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18MpYe9Xwxk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jdCzt74OCo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgkWxTldY1s

Oh man I hope they announce a b-sides collection please

I need to give that album another chance. I could never get into it - the concept never seemed to translate well into a great musical experience - but I was a big fan of her work and I know plenty of people love Let England Shake. It even got to #2 in the P&J poll, albeit in a weak year.

(I should say, I'm still a big fan of her work, just not of her more recent albums.)

Listening to Rid of Me and its still staggering!

never seen this before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpFSppgBpUc

Me neither! Seems like it was just before she made Dry.

Not a bad song but the male frontman has serious ewww vibes

everything is so cheesy til she starts singing! her voice cuts through the cheese, amazing!! 18 year old me loves to see it <3

A new interview in The Observer about her upcoming book (a narrative poem written in the Dorset dialect) offers this exciting tidbit:

She lets slip that she has a new album coming out next year and, although not supposed to be talking about it, allows herself to say: “I’m really pleased with it – and I’m my own harshest critic.”

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/apr/24/pj-harvey-poetry-dorset-orlam-interview

https://www.nme.com/news/music/pj-harvey-update-on-new-album-to-be-released-2023-3258356

https://www.nme.com/news/music/listen-to-pj-harveys-haunting-cover-of-leonard-cohens-who-by-fire-3294140

Loving recent Dylan, soundtracks by Sakamoto, and Greenwood and covering Leonard Cohen. Yup sounds like stuff PJ Harvey would like (in a good way)

I was pleased to see a Mica Levi shoutout, they’re a criminally underrated artist for me

i appreciate her shoutout to rough and rowdy ways

i appreciate her

She walked past me on Sunday (away from The Smile's set) at the Nick Cave All Points East in Victoria Park. Last time Nick Cave did one of these, Kylie appeared as a surprise guest, so I was absolutely convinced PJ was gonna come on for Henry Lee - but sadly not.

Her Instagram has been a sea of photos old and new lately.

Argh, I want a b-sides collection!!! Was hoping that would finish off the reissue series.

Nervous about a new album because Hope Six was such a disappointment.

John Parish said in a recent interview that the new album is recorded but not mastered, will be out some time next year, and is closely tied to her new poetry book Orlam (i.e. the song lyrics are poems lifted from the book—which means an album in the Dorset dialect), so we know that at least thematically it will be miles away from Hope Six.

A B-sides and rarities box set coming this month!!!!!!! My finances, already perilous, are screwed, but fuck it, this is a dream come true!

https://www.thegardenforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2858

Already working out the stuff that's missing though... fuck

e.g. Claudine the Inflatable One but loads of others

https://imgur.com/A66bxne

https://i.imgur.com/A66bxne.jpeg

I'll take it though!

Oh man! I don’t even know a lot of these songs, so excited

yeah, buncha stuff on the last two LPs i’ve never heard of. this is exciting!

This is good news but so many demos there vs so many songs (esp from films, TV series) missing.

No Wang Dang Doodle?

Exciting, and yes, I could think of 20 other rarities that should be here, as well as live stuff, covers, guest features etc. but I'm glad at least these are being released in one place. Record 2 and 3 in particular just look like strong, pretty cohesive albums that will warrant repeated listening.

Despite all the amputations, I am so stoked for this. For the most part I’m clueless to her rare tracks and whatnot, so this is a lot of extra PJ for me to absorb.

As someone said upthread and I find myself saying too often these days, I hope there’s a CD version.

Here we go

https://www.treblezine.com/pj-harvey-announces-b-sides-demos-rarities-box-set/

excuse my ignorance, but how much overlap does this have with all the demo records that have come out in the last couple years?

excuse my ignorance, but how much overlap does this have with all the demo records that have come out in the last couple years?

― bulb after bulb

There's no overlap.

The "Missed", "Dry", "Me-Jane" and "Highway 61 Revisited" demos were not included on 4-Track Demos, and the "Cat on the Wall" and "You Come Through" demos were for some reason omitted from Uh Huh Her - Demos.

Everything else is non-album material B-sides, B-side demos, random rarities, etc.

vinyl only then?

xp thanks! amazing (and great) that there's so much still there after the demo records.

vinyl only then?

― StanM

3CD and digital too!

oh great! thanks!

I almost pre-ordered the CC version yesterday, then realized that the most basic shipping option was more than the cost of the set.

So: I’ll be looking for this in a local record store.

the b-sides/rarities/demos collection is so fucking good. it's the only thing i've been listening to for a few days

what is the deal with "maniac"? very similar arrangement to "down by the water" but a completely different (and great) song

I was about to post a similar comment. Maybe I'm burned out on "Down...," but I might prefer "Maniac."

New album coming, there are two teaser videos on her socials and an announcement is scheduled for Tuesday evening.

A new playlist is now available on Spotify, featuring tracks co-produced alongside @JohnParish50 and Flood: https://t.co/TUAnzOjwWk

New studio clip filmed, directed and edited by #SteveGullick. pic.twitter.com/EWIHnTpzfA

— PJ Harvey (@PJHarveyUK) April 19, 2023

A second studio clip… filmed, directed and edited by #SteveGullick.

If you would like to be first to hear about new music, join the PJ Harvey mailing list community https://t.co/ZUXlkAPgbv pic.twitter.com/dhRhga6xPi

— PJ Harvey (@PJHarveyUK) April 21, 2023

The tracklisting shown in one of the videos indicates the record is based on poems from Orlam.

I Inside the Old Year Dying
out July 7th on Partisan Records

https://i.ibb.co/r4q6hSQ/IMG-9193.jpg

1. Prayer at the Gate
2. Autumn Term
3. Lwonesome Tonight
4. Seem an I
5. The Nether-edge
6. I Inside the Old Year Dying
7. All Souls
8. A Child's Question, August
9. I Inside the Old I Dying
10. August
11. A Child's Question, July
12. A Noiseless Noise

PJ Harvey says, "After many years of work I am very happy to release this collection of new songs. It was a difficult album to make and took time to find its strongest form, but it has finally become all I hoped for it to be."

I Inside the Old Year Dying marks PJ Harvey's first album in seven years, produced and mixed by her long-time creative collaborators John Parish and Flood.

"On this album PJ Harvey builds a sonic universe somehow located in a space between life's opposites, and between recent history and the ancient past.

Scattered with biblical imagery and references to Shakespeare, all of these distinctions ultimately dissolve into something profoundly uplifting and redemptive." - John Harris, March 2023

First single "A Child's Question, August" out tomorrow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvYMlixvzHM

that sounds great!

Yeah. I’ve not understood her need to use her high, reedy register for so many of the more recent records, but this is beginning to sound like the Polly I used to admire so fiercely.