PJ Harvey - The Hope Six Demolition Project (2016)

not trying to hear you

Scared to listen to this. Everything about it seems very "101," and the Pitchfork review, while bending over backwards to be as positive as possible (which is fair, because Harvey is such a hugely talented artist she deserves the benefit of the doubt), basically shrugs and boils it down to a bunch of ideas with no clear intent/impact in search of the right medium. She sold tickets to watch her record it, released a book of poetry, now comes the album, next comes the documentary ... maybe it'll be a dance piece after that? Photo exhibition?

the song about an ALCOHOLIC NATIVE AMERICAN WOMAN who has abandoned TRADITIONAL SUMAC AND OTHER HERBS is the most stupid thing pj harvey has ever written

― cher guevara (lex pretend),

daaaaamn

Yikes. Does she have a shitty new friend who is giving her bad advice?!

an alcoholic Native American woman

From the Spin review:

The marching “Medicinals” suffers again though, for pairing an attractive tune with an ogling description of a disabled woman in a Redskins cap that makes it difficult to tell if Harvey’s more disgusted by the woman’s existence or her predicament

http://www.spin.com/2016/04/review-pj-harvey-the-hope-six-demolition-project/

all these reviews make the record sound terrible but rate it 7+

White Chalk is still the worst PJ Harvey album by far, that 2007 bundle of piano ruminations with names like “Dear Darkness” tucked inside tossed-off album art.

:|

anyway i am looking forward to apprehensively listening to this

white chalk is amazing though

(and WAIT @ naming any album other than STFC PJH's worst prior to this)

laura snapes' review in pitchfork is totally excellent though

white chalk is amazing though
otm

this one has a few great musical moments for sure ("the ministry of defence"! and the "wade in the water" section of "river anacostia") but its overall musical identity isn't blowing me away, and the concept...idk, applying the detached journalistic voice that was perfect for LES to current situations doesn't work at all, it's less "inhabiting historic ghosts/haunting battlefields from the future" and more "rich white lady's observations make u think"

i really like it and i said so in my review but i guess non-new york broadsheets don't get traction these days :P

maura's review:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/music/2016/04/13/album-review-harvey-the-hope-six-demolition-project/HiXiNnGmSRElV1coSPzBYN/story.html

SFTC is perfect imo

Is that acronym "Songs From the City?" Yeah, I love it. It's the one I listen to the most after "Dry," by some margin.

Stories, rather.

yeah, if some of the lyrics on sftc were a little bit dumb, it was in a way that i guess didn't matter to me.

fully admit that my frame of reference doesn't do this new one any favors. but I don't have to love everything my favorites make.

i didn't like stories for years because it seemed entirely too indebted to Patti Smith but now I think it's great.

that said, this new one doesn't sound good at all.

iirc lex is a staunch contrarian when it comes to stories

i know a LOT of ppl who dislike stories, the only album i can think of where as many ppl i know got of the bus is tbyml (and a lot of ppl got on there so it kinda counteracts it). i love it, it's her new morning.

I can understand not digging stories…in early 2000s NYC, you heard it in bars and clubs more than any record other than Is this it, and I was often annoyed with the Thom Yorke duet. I'm surprised that Herr Pretend holds her in any esteem whatsoever, given that she represents certain '90s brit-rock verities.

I have not fucked with White Chalk or LES, barring hearing a song here and there, not via my own agency…is it right that she's not necessarily trying to sing, like, conventionally well & powerfully any longer? Dance Hall has "Dead Urn" which is an olympian achievement vocally… but it seems like she's trying sound like an elderly woman or a child on the tunes I've heard, and she sings quite plainly on these new ones, which I suppose suits the allegedly unadorned conceit. But goddamn did she used to let that shit rip.

I remember that I read somewhere, maybe an interview, that given her voice and her guitar were her most powerful tools, she tried to do White Chalk by minimising both as an experiment

White Chalk is pretty amazing, I love that record.

so no consensus then

i don't dislike stories but it really pales in comparison to the rest of her discography, i don't see how this is contrarianism

i've never had the sense that it was held in particular high esteem by PJH fans, just by rock critics/casual fans who were relieved that she briefly wasn't scary or difficult

Stories was my way in; nowhere near my favourite now, but I have a lot of affection for it.

But anyway, I've not been put off by the discussion around the new album ad will be picking up the album later today. I thought it was pretty well accepted that Polly never sings as herself; she's said repeatedly in the past that all her songs are in character, and though she's obviously not giving interviews these days I've no reason to doubt that. So I'm looking forward to this, albeit with very minor reservations after loving LES dearly.

Uh Huh Her is worse than Stories, you'd be forgiven for forgetting that one even existed though. I'm not that keen on To Bring You My Love either but obviously that's canonical Polly for a lot of people.

uh huh her is a great album! and the perfect, perfect follow-up to stories, it was a great relief

I loved/love the first two so much that I was totally befuddled by how crazy people went over To Bring You My Love, though when she reinvented herself as this sort of crazy flamenco dancer confrontationist to tour behind it I thought it worked really well.

I can't remember a damn thing about Uh Huh Her and I've owned it for more than a decade. I can still remember pretty much all the songs on Stories.

just watched some clips of PH performing on the Uh huh her tour, and now I dimly remember that there were snide suggestions that she was trying look and act like Karen O, seeing as clearly the latter had been quite fond of the former…does anyone else remember that? now I see that in her band at the time she had the young man who's now in the RHCP and got into the suckass Rock Hall based on like 2 years in the band.

Say what you want about RHCP and the Rock Hall, but Josh Klinghoffer is pretty cool.

he's like a a pro dude! i would expect PJ Harvey would have pro dudes. what's wrong w.that?

i don't dislike stories but it really pales in comparison to the rest of her discography, i don't see how this is contrarianism

though it hasn't worn nearly as well as her early albums, i liked stories quite a bit at the time, and i always feel like i'm taking the contrarian position when i defend it

at the time, i thought stories just sounded kinda generic, which wasn't something you could accuse PJ of previously. but whenever i hear it, i like it a bit more than i expect.

If anything, if it sounds generic it may be because her lyrics are at the most straight-forward romantic/scared/honest/etc., at least to my ears. There's not a lot of obvious artifice/character playing. I find a lot of her albums to be almost intentionally alienating, a tendency of hers, off and on. "Stories" is the opposite of that. (For reference, I think something like To Bring You My Love is somewhere in the middle.)

From the Pitchfork review:

At Hope Six’s most thrilling points, Harvey delves back into the influence of her parents’ record collection to channel the swagger of Captain Beefheart, John Lee Hooker, and Howlin’ Wolf

Hoping this rings true to me when I listen to the album.

I find a lot of her albums to be almost intentionally alienating, a tendency of hers, off and on. "Stories" is the opposite of that.

this is why it's her worst!

I dunno. I found it honestly accessible (as opposed to a sell out move). I think a lot of her alienating stuff is bullshit. I rate her so highly as a singer, songwriter and musician that it bugs me when she works equally hard to undercut her strengths.

Hope Six’s most thrilling points, Harvey delves back into the influence of her parents’ record collection to channel the swagger of Captain Beefheart, John Lee Hooker, and Howlin’ Wolf

see I'm tired of these people and their influence.

stories has her least interesting singing, songwriting and arrangements though. literally all of her other albums take those qualities into more emotionally affecting and complex territory. and i don't think her "difficulty" comes at the expense of accessibility or listenability at any point - for all the "stories is her accessible move" i don't find its hooks or traditional songcraft at all superior to those on is this desire? or to bring you my love, or any of her other albums tbh.

Yeah, that makes sense, I guess. But I do think her difficulty is in some ways an affectation, and that it does come at the expense of her listeners. But then, I literally never listen to White Chalk, Uh Huh Her, Is This Desire? or either of her John Parish albums, which is a pretty huge chunk of work from one of my faves. In fact, I can't think of any other favorite act whose catalog I largely avoid. 10 albums, 5 of which I listen to lots, 5 of which I doubt I'll ever listen to again. And the new one.

i haven't listened to white chalk in a long time. that's a cool record. and i came late to it. didn't hear it when it came out. i don't know if i've ever heard uh huh her.

i also don't remember what is this desire? sounds like.

i think the only thing i remember not really liking was that duo album she did in the 90's.

and i'm still afraid that if i keep reading about the new one its somehow gonna magically take away from how much i loved LES. maybe i should stop reading about the new one...

white chalk is perfect listening when you're ill and feverish fyi

PJH fans who don't listen to is this desire? baffle me, it's her absolute pinnacle and she thinks so too

i should get a copy of is this desire? i don't have one. i should look for the old stuff i haven't heard for ages. would like to hear it again.

yeah, i think it's her best album too.