PJ Harvey : Classic or Dud

As for the other albums, I prefer "To Bring You My Love" to "Dry", "Dry" to "Rid of Me".

But I do like the new single 'Place Called Home'. A blantantly pop single, but you gotta love it.

However, I saw her perform You Said Something on David Letterman show, and I have to say that that particular performance was one of the best television experiences I've had in my life. If you have a Harvey fan for a friend, ask them if they taped it and go see it with them. Truly trancendent.

Love, Jeff

"Uh Huh Her." Thoughts on the new PJ Harvey?

...to keep us going for a while.

However, talking about her as a whole -- I'm going through a relisten of everything building up to the show on Tuesday (might even dig up all the B-sides if I can manage it), and that meant Dry earlier (good songs, couple of great performances, strong without being compelling) and Rid of Me now (holy fuck what a great album -- what a *GREAT* album).

It seems to me that she's very easily slipped over the line that separates initially promising start to ever more unique figure to finally someone with an actual continuing career well over a decade while still remaining interesting, to me at least. And all on the same label still, eight albums on (allowing for the fact that Dry got picked up by Island here and counting the Parish collaboration). Not bad, more thoughts later...

S

"Sheela-na-gig" has been on repeat for several days now in Winamp.

been with her stuff since 'sheela'

live performances in the past have been disappointing against the records *but* a recent live encounter proved her at the at the absolute apex top of her game. great tunes/performance/band the whole thing.

catch while you can...

Dance Hall is indeed a very good album as you said over on the monster thread, but I think it's very subtle and requires a lot of relistening -- it's about the only album that the cover of "Is That All There Is?" aside I can't immediately recall a full song from it, even though I've heard it a lot. Hrm.

(if I were the "heckling type", which is not necessarily the case)

Hey, you better not. ;-)

Seeing her tonight, rah! Hm. Wonder if she'll mention Peel.

I say classic, if only for Rid Of Me (which I only own on tape and never can listen to for this reason, really really REALLY need to get it on CD), To Bring You My Love, and Uh Huh Her. Everything else is pretty good (Dry) to crap (Dance Hall).

I wonder if she'll play the same set. If I weren't packing boxes I'd go again.

I'd imagine he was himself.

(Are you going to be at EJL's party on Saturday? If not, I will pout.)

After one listen, I feel like I need to listen to it further - a good sign.

I'm loving it. It sounds like her again.

Got my CD today but not listened yet.

Hmmm, interesting but not a lot of fun to listen to? For me anyway.

idk is white chalk fun to listen to? the new one feels like it sits next to that one more than anything imo. the songs certainly have been creeping into me slowly like some kind of mold. and i think there's audible wonder in the realm harvey/parish/flood are creating with the wispiest gestures

a fragmented account of things that seem intimately woven into each other (e.g. the recurrence of figures like "wyman-elvis" and the repeated interpolations/inversions of "love me tender"). songs can be static as a photograph or mutant as the ground of a swamp. like sifting through the damaged remains of something long after its ended, but also finding something eternal in it, something that's being repeated over and over again behind the skin of reality, like a heartbeat

off topic I got the Peel Sessions comp on that Sound of Vinyl sale and wow, what an amazing document

It's a more compelling listen than White Chalk, which at the time I tagged as the first chapter in a phase we wouldn't see -- until now: skeletal by design, testing her vocal range. The lyric sheet looks like transcribed Geoffrey Hill poems, and her own lyrics have his curiosity about English myths and folklore.

xp me too! I am perhaps driving my family crazy with the frequency of wang dang doodles.

i think the first and last tracks are the best

Brad nails the feeling.

thank u raymond (fyi i'm going by "ivy" now, prob one day soon i'll appear with a different username)

the new yorker interview is v good.

let england shake had been the first thing id liked of hers for a while, a long while. and hope 6 left me cold. but this album is really working its way into me. at first i felt the music was a little weak - just a sort of funereal pattering and chiming - the field recordings, the interleaving of themes and phrases, her voice of course, create the feeling of a whole work - almost a song cycle (listening to Abrahamsen’s Let Me Tell You cycle of songs comprising only words used by Ophelia in Hamlet, from Paul Griffiths’ novel of the same name, is the closest recent listening experience i’ve had). i’m still circling around it, still a bit hesitating and uncertain - the slightness of it - but it feels pretty magical to me. a scrap of something in the wind caught on barbed wire on a country walk.

i think it was the nether edge that first switched me on to the album.

She was every bit as good as I'd hoped and expected at the recent live show (I went to the second night in Glasgow).

Given that, I'm more than a little tempted by the London show that's just been announced for next year at Gunnersbury Park. What's that like as a venue, if anyone has been? I also only know Big Thief from the others on the bill, in case there's anything in particular I should check out to aid decision making.

PJ Harvey announces her only London summer performance of 2024 at Gunnersbury Park, a Grade II listed parkland venue within walking distance of Acton Town and Ealing Broadway, on Sunday 18th August 2024.

PJ Harvey says, “I’m grateful to Gunnersbury Park for inviting me to curate this event. I have chosen what I feel to be some of the most exciting artists working today. With them I hope to be able to give the audience an emotional, heartening and uplifting experience.”

The line-up includes special guests Big Thief, Tirzah, and Shida Shahabi.

Saw her last month and all I can say is her current show is insanely good—perhaps not surprisingly, I have never seen her be anything less than stellar live, but she still exceeded my expectations. She had a small four-person backing band featuring John Parish and James Johnston from Gallon Drunk/Bad Seeds and a pretty simple but theatrical staging (old furniture scattered all over lol). The first half focused just on I Inside the Old Year Dying performed from the beginning to the end (and boy how this album comes alive in concert!) and then the second hour was pretty much a back catalogue dive, from Let England Shake through favs from Is This Desire (“The Garden”!) and To Bring You My Love to early work like "Man-Size" or "Dress". Vocally impeccable and she hasn’t lost an ounce of her charisma.

And yes, she’s doing festivals/open air shows in Europe next year and then a tour of the US in the fall—don’t miss!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtYDx_2L1mo

Cool. Miss rockin' Polly. That trio ruled.

That Gunnersbury Park show...

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

Glad I held off on the London show now, with more dates just announced, including Halifax at The Piece Hall, which looks like a really nice venue. Might look into heading there instead.

the 13 Oct Paris show will be on Arte's youtube channel in two days:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30IJIexCS24

I've been working my way through the mass of Harvey vinyl I've acquired in the past couple of years (demos, B-sides box, neglected albums).

Let England Shake demos might be my favorite demo disc. It's startling to hear those songs paired back and raw.

Hope Six demos are better than the actual album. If she had just released those through a web site or as a smaller project it would probably have a better reputation. It's still not great by any means, but smallness helps it.

cool, I'll give those a listen. I haven't actually listened to the demos for any of these (other than the old 4 track Demos release); I picked up the Peel Sessions record but that was it.

late to the new one but really liking it, sounds like her ghost made a record

that Paris concert just started streaming fyi

I've been a doubter but no more, that is a fantastic show. What an artist.

yes, I needed to see the live performances to get me over the line re: the album again (this seems to be the pattern with me and her albums now)

3 songs missing from the complete show: 16 Angelene, 17 Send His Love to Me and 24 C'mon Billy

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/pj-harvey/2023/lolympia-bruno-coquatrix-paris-france-2ba3443a.html

Angelene is a big favourite, I'm glad she's comfortable going back to it.

yeah wish those were included; this is a great show

fitting she closed this with White Chalk, I've been thinking that's the album the new one is most like (also an album lots of people had a hard time with; it's one of my favorites, I like her gothy shit)

oh maybe I should listen to the new one then, I love White Chalk

sounds like her ghost made a record

this is an accurate description

Let England Shake demos might be my favorite demo disc. It's startling to hear those songs paired back and raw.

gave several of the demo discs a partial listen over the past day; some are interesting, some are not; some have replay value, some don't (some of the ones for Is this Desire sounds like the demos were just overdubbed and worked on to become the final versions). The most illuminating thing about Let England Shake was how those songs appear to have been written around samples from other tracks; suddenly "gonna take my problems to the united nations" makes total sense, the entire drum rhythm for the song comes from Summertime Blues.

Great new interview / live session from World Cafe:
https://www.npr.org/sections/world-cafe/2023/12/15/1219342795/pj-harvey-album-i-inside-the-old-year-dying

Offers some candid insights into writing Hope 6:

I can remember whilst I was writing The Hope Six Demolition Project album, which was the album prior to this one, it felt like hard work. I had to really graft to get anything good, and that seemed to continue. And even the songs that I was writing, I felt like they were just missing the mark for what I really wanted to be doing. It was such a struggle, and it was not enjoyable. I thought, “I’m not enjoying this, this is feeling more like homework you’ve got to do than the love of my life”. And I just kept thinking, “Keep working through it, just work through it, it will pass”. And it didn’t, really.

She's been reading my posts: "each of the subsequent records, despite having a few notable songs, felt like homework, 'this-is-for-your-own-good' art."

I can't find that quote in the interview page - has it been edited, maybe?

^ I transcribed it from the audio interview, the quotes on the website are just excerpts

Oh nice! Will listen.

PJ Harvey ticketmaster pre-sale today for some shows in North America

password is NOISELESS

Got my ticket !!!

got 4th row at the Greek. probably the first time I've spent over $100 for a ticket, but worth it. other than the reading/mini-set she did in the fall, haven't seen her in 20 years.

i’ll be further back in the greek, nearly considered buying closer but i don’t get paid til later in the week. went to her last show there on the ‘hope six’ tour, can’t waitttt

I briefly considered getting a ticket but just couldn't pull the trigger for a $100+ ticket considering I like but don't love her album from last year and I know she'll play older tracks and it'll be a great show overall but why do shows have to be so fucking expensive these days fuck this

Not a fan of Terminal 5 here in NYC, the venue really sucks for multiple reasons, but I guess the tradeoff is that the show's GA with tickets being $85 including fees. Is the Greek really nice?

Pondering a ticket

I'm glad to finally be on my proper jouney with PJ
I've danced around it for years

really assumed the masonic shows in SF would be fully seated but apparently floor is GA, which is fine. Happy these tickets were only $75, completely reasonable for how amazing this is going to be.

DC show at Anthem appears to be GA too

for the floor