A Beginner’s Guide To PJ Harvey

Tracks 7, 8 & 15 ‘Good Fortune’, ‘A Place Called Home’ & ‘You Said Something’ (from the album Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea 2000)


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2000’s ‘Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea’ famously won the 2001 Mercury Music prize for Polly. It has been referred to as her New York album and surreally she was in Washington DC on tour on 9/11 where she accepted the prize by phone sounding a tad nonplussed,almost embarrassed.

The album is her lowest charting UK album, peaking at #23, it’s an anomaly that it actually ended up her best selling record. The singles had very frustrating chart peaks for stat geek fans (like me). ‘Good Fortune’ #41, ‘A Place Called Home’ #43, ‘This Is Love’ #41.

A lot of the focus on the album release was the involvement of Thom Yorke which was a bit of a disservice to Polly’s work. For me ‘Beautiful Feeling’ and ‘This Mess We’re In’ are two of the least notable tracks here.

The album sees a bit of a shift in the songwriting. The lyrics are often observational rather than the familiar confessional. The vocals are definitely lighter overall if not bright and breezy. The sound is more uniform throughout the record, very much a three piece band sound, all of which makes it feel more accessible without ever straying into Radio 2 territory. It’s as close to mainstream as she’d ever be, well as close as you can get whilst still singing about whores and syphilis.

Speaking to Q about the album Polly said she was trying to make “absolute beauty” and wanted the album to be “full of reverb and lush layers of melody”. I’m not sure this is what is achieved here completely but the record is definitely more contained and lighter sounding than before.

Key album tracks ‘We Float’, ‘This Wicked Tongue’ (hidden track), ‘Big Exit’.
 
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Tracks 9 & 10 ‘You Come Through’ and ‘The Letter’ (from the album Uh Huh Her 2004)

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After the accolades and commercial success of ‘Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea’ the stage was set for Polly to smooth the edges out even more and launch herself onto the next level of fame. Did she do that? Well, of course not. She dawdled back four years later with a murky, sometimes confrontational record which is encapsulated in the album cover and knowingly awkwardly worded title. An attempt at self sabotage? Probably.

The album peaked at #12 in the UK, returned her to the US Top 40 and ‘The Letter’ gave her another UK Top 40 single. The other singles continued her frustrating habit of near misses. ‘You Come Through’ stalling at #41 and ‘Shame’ at #45.

This album is notable for being the first she recorded alone. In multiple interviews she often said she wanted to capture something “ugly…with swagger and warmness.” The sound fluctuates between lo fi bawdiness and minimalism through guitars tuned as low as they could go all the while sounding like it could be nobody else. Her albums after this had a more consistent sound to them.

I feel there’s plenty of positivity on this record too. Lyrically if you’re turned on by sexy calligraphy ‘The Letter’ is the song for you with its salivating over the “curve” of a “G”. Ever been fumin’ with the hairdresser for a bad haircut? ‘Who The Fuck?’ is your anthem. Sometimes this album feels a bit forgotten in PJ album discussions but return visits always sees it holding it’s form.

Key album tracks ‘The Desperate Kingdom Of Love’, ‘The Life And Death Of Mr Badmouth’ and ‘Who The Fuck?’
 
Well I'm going to put Stories on as it's been too long considering it was my own big exit as it were.

09 Big Exit - the chorus is one big glorious push down the stairs and the only thing I'd say is more chaos please Polly
09 Good Fortune - we all know it. Both uncharacteristically rousing and yet not that different from something like Dress
06 A Place Called Home - I like what's going on alongside the near spoken word sung chorus.
07 One Line - this is the Polly I want, but in patches
09 Beautiful Feeling - gorgeous and so still
10 The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore - this truly jumps out (of the moving car) at you. I could listen to the wailing all day.
06 This Mess We're In - I'm actually on my 2nd listen of the album, but this is staying on the 6. Imagine if she had got you know who to sing on it instead (and forgot to tell Thom). Her spoken word bits would have been quite something.
09 You Said Something - gosh, this also could have been an instead-of single. "Your radio playing" - I mean, has she ever sounded like this? Swooning. To lazily compare, I've decided this is her Boys on the Radio.
07 Kamikaze - an extra point for the chaos
05 This Is Love - this never found a spark in me and it's probably the song I hear the most from her.
09 Horses in My Dreams - this is a sigh of everything
10 We Float - oh I'm gone. Never heard Tori's version - I can't imagine anyone else inhabiting Polly's despair as love or love as despair, but if anyone can do it, etc. This was always the big moment of the album for me and it's o good to hear it again,
09 The Wicked Tongue - the exhaust pipe of the album delivers a suitable roar. The ten is very tempting..

So I guess this means I have it around the 8 mark.

Looking forward to what I'm pretty sure will be my first ever UHH.
 
Track 11 ‘When Under Ether’ (from the album White Chalk, 2007)

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It’s the piano album. 2007’s ‘White Chalk’ was composed on the piano, an instrument Polly freely admitted to being a complete novice on and admitted to knowing nothing about. Somehow this resulted in her feeling completely liberated in making the album which was another UK Top 20 album for her peaking at #11.

The prospect of a mostly guitar free PJ Harvey album was pretty shocking. Quite a feat then that the most shocking thing about this album are the vocals. It did take me some time to come round to them. The vocals are set at a high pitch and tone for the most part often intentionally childlike or adolescent sounding which was quite unnerving.

Just like the album cover there is almost a gothic, Victorian era ghost like presence stalking and haunting the songs making it feel like the musical equivalent of a costume drama.

The record is sparse in parts with plenty of room for the songs to exist, though if you’re looking for choruses you’ll not find many here. Often the tuning of the piano, the percussion and the harp sounds like it’s deliberately slightly off which gives the whole thing an unsettling feel. Opening track ‘The Devil’ starts of so jauntily that it makes me think ‘Back To Black’ has come on before heading somewhere entirely different. It deserved the great reviews it received though it’s not one of the albums I return to most, for me it’s a mood piece.

Key album tracks : ‘White Chalk’, ‘The Piano’ and ‘The Devil’.
 
straightorbroken said:
Well I'm going to put Stories on as it's been too long considering it was my own big exit as it were.

09 Big Exit - the chorus is one big glorious push down the stairs and the only thing I'd say is more chaos please Polly
09 Good Fortune - we all know it. Both uncharacteristically rousing and yet not that different from something like Dress
06 A Place Called Home - I like what's going on alongside the near spoken word sung chorus.
07 One Line - this is the Polly I want, but in patches
09 Beautiful Feeling - gorgeous and so still
10 The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore - this truly jumps out (of the moving car) at you. I could listen to the wailing all day.
06 This Mess We're In - I'm actually on my 2nd listen of the album, but this is staying on the 6. Imagine if she had got you know who to sing on it instead (and forgot to tell Thom). Her spoken word bits would have been quite something.
09 You Said Something - gosh, this also could have been an instead-of single. "Your radio playing" - I mean, has she ever sounded like this? Swooning. To lazily compare, I've decided this is her Boys on the Radio.
07 Kamikaze - an extra point for the chaos
05 This Is Love - this never found a spark in me and it's probably the song I hear the most from her.
09 Horses in My Dreams - this is a sigh of everything
10 We Float - oh I'm gone. Never heard Tori's version - I can't imagine anyone else inhabiting Polly's despair as love or love as despair, but if anyone can do it, etc. This was always the big moment of the album for me and it's o good to hear it again,
09 The Wicked Tongue - the exhaust pipe of the album delivers a suitable roar. The ten is very tempting..

So I guess this means I have it around the 8 mark.

Looking forward to what I'm pretty sure will be my first ever UHH.
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Love this! Do the same for Is This Desire? when you’re feeling better and have time.
 
Track 12 : ‘The Words That Maketh Murder’ (from the album Let England Shake, 2011)

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There was another joint album with John Parish between ‘White Chalk’ and this one called ‘A Woman A Man Walked By’ but as this is a strictly PJ Harvey album we are onto this. Fancy an ode to the pointless violence of the First World War with some paeans to England? Then this is your record.

The album brought her back into the UK Top 10 charting at #8, it was also a top 40 album in the US. Most significantly it also won her the Mercury Prize for the second time (‘Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea’ was her first). She was the first artist (and still only I believe) to have won it twice.

This record really sees her assume a role as a historian in the guise of a songwriter. The higher, softer vocals have carried over from ‘White Chalk’. For me this is a deliberate tactic to get the listener drawn more deeply into the lyrics, music and mood. Guitars steeped in reverb play within otherwise often jaunty musical and vocal arrangements which is a sharp juxtaposition with many of the stark lyrics. Singing “what if I take my problem to the United Nations?” never sounded so chipper. The track on this playlist reflects or suggests the sound across the whole album which is why I included just one track.

Putting on my music snob hat this really is a genuine piece of art thematically, lyrically and sonically. Some museum really should have a room dedicated to a display of the period she is singing about with this album playing on a loop in the background. They should even sell the album for her (chart eligible sales only of course).

Personally I prefer some of her more unhinged, flawed efforts but this album is truly gorgeous.

Key album tracks ‘On Battleship Hill’, ‘The Glorious Land’ and ‘The Last Living Rose’.
 
Tracks 13 & 14 ‘The Wheel’ and ‘The Community of Hope’ (from ‘The Hope Six Demolition Project’ 2016).


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So now we’re at the final instalment of this general guide to Polly Jean Harvey and we reach there with her NUMBER ONE album. Not a lot of people have that (to quote Mimi). Strangely this seems to be an album many fans took a long time to come around to, or indeed, never really came around to at all. For me it was a pretty instant like and I properly love it.

Another first with this album is that it seems like the first direct follow up (of sorts) to the previous album that she’d made. The difference now being we experience the songwriter as roving correspondent. She researched these songs by spending time in Afghanistan, Kosovo and Washington DC studying troubled sections of some communities. There’s a danger this record could stray into poverty tourism but I think her intentions are good and she avoids this.

The songs on the playlist again represent the overall feel of the album so would indicate if the album is likely to click with a new listener. A stark contrast is evident again between some of the swaggering melodies and the dark lyrical content. Musically it’s a case of layers of guitars and pulsing drums. It is odd this record is the one they gave her the number one but as a musical and stylistic chameleon she definitely deserves one in her catalogue.

Some of the album highlights : ‘The Ministry of Defence’, ‘A Line In The Sand’ and ‘The Orange Monkey’.
 
The songs from Is This Desire and Let England Shake most interested me I think
 
On a rooftop in Brooklyn
At one in the morning
Watching the lights flash
In Manhattan
I see five bridges
The Empire State Building
And you said something
That I've never forgotten

Lean against railings
Describing the colors
And the smells of our homelands
Acting like lovers
How did we get here?
To this point of living
I held my breath
And you said something

And I'm doing nothin' wrong
Riding in your car
Your radio playing
We sing up to the eighth floor
A rooftop, Manhattan
One in the morning
And you said something
That I've never forgotten

You said something
You said something
You said something
That was really important
 
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