Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea

PJ Harvey is yet another in a too-long list of outstanding musical artists who I somehow just simply missed altogether when they were definitely available to me as a listener and concert-goer. I remember hearing her name a lot, and she was spoken very very highly of by a number of people whose musical tastes were similar to mine. Anyway, even though I can't quite explain how I didn't listen to her 21 years ago when this album was released, I can say after having listened to it that I think it's fantastic work. Compelling, intriguing, very interesting chord progressions and rhythms, and I just dig the overall vibe. Dark without being too self-referential or too harsh. Really solid album.

It starts off innocently, a couple of fairly standard rocky numbers, which had me worrying about lack of diversity. Then we hit the numbers she did with Thom Yorke, which sandwich the genius of "The Whores Hustle..." Now we start hearing the Nick Cave influence. There is light, shade, darkness. She uses that voice to stab you in the heart. When it's over, you feel bereft. Thank God for replay. I knew she was good, but this is the best album I've heard in years.

Her most accessible album, and quite possibly her masterpiece (it's either this or Rid Of Me). It's as close as mainstream America finally got to embracing Generation X's Joni Mitchell. It might be due to the fact that Polly Jean sounds happy and playful, at least compared to her earlier work. Polly Jean Harvey deserves to have as many albums on this list as Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. And this one's my favorite.

An exquisite album from an extraordinary artist at the top of her game, PJ Harvey’s song writing and playing hits another level. Beautiful, melodic love songs that rock hard.

Enjoyed this one. PJ’s seemingly odd and occultist personality really comes through in her own perception of love.

Substantive and coherent. Thoughtful and driving. No real huge hits but a certain timelessness -- professionally executed at a very high level. Holds up and will continue to. Thom Yorke's guest appearance tells you all you need to know about the overall quality and band's position at the time.

In which critic’s darling Polly Jean evokes rather than describes new love darkened by a generalised dread that, if you want to take things too far, kind of adumbrates 9/11 the following year. Twenty years on, it’s a useful reminder of two truths. One, love always wins the day. Two, the West had been demonstrating its skills in geopolitical goat-fuckery for decades, and 9/11 wasn’t the bolt from the blue many like to pretend. Anyway, the album. Again and again, Harvey throws a rope around her unwieldy themes: “I’m immortal when I’m with you, but I want a pistol in my hand”; “Does it have to be a world full of dread? I want to chase you round the table and touch your head”; “I can’t believe the axis turns on suffering when you taste so good”; “This world all gone to war. All I need is you tonight.”; “I draw a line from your heart to mine. A line to keep us safe.” Her themes are distilled to bold and beautiful physical gestures, but they wouldn’t carry half as much heft without the sonics that are the album’s greatest achievement. It’s a sound you feel could sweep across an ocean. That’s no coincidence, as there are more than a few references here to Polly’s separation from her man. If I’m reading it right, he’s in London and she’s in New York (omg, omg, omg: 9/11). The surprisingly sparse arrangements match the economy of her writing, averaging (yep, I’ve done the sum) 4.3 instruments per track. Only the blissful ‘We Float’ gets a big-finish 12! Shit, Polly, quit flexin’. As always, it’s not about how much is there, it’s about what it does. And the standard guitar-bass-drums—sprinkled with harmonium, harpsichord, tambourine, maracas, electric piano, E. bow, bells, and djembe—are deeper than a full orchestra because you can feel the spaces between them. At the dawn of a century (oh god, what am I doing?) defined for many by the alienating effects of globalisation, evoking ’the spaces between’ is pretty damn clairvoyant. And so I thank Polly for reminding me of the lines you can draw across those spaces, from one heart to another. [Vomits]

This is the first artist that I've heard of - This is a solid album and PJ Harvey gets high marks for being influential, but it's not quite a 5 star album for me. Some obvious influences are Patti Smith on "Good Fortune" and Neil Young's Cinnamon Girl on the opening of "This is Love". There's also a great collaboration with Thom Yorke of Radiohead.

Strong female vocals with driving guitars and a punk sensibility. I really like this! Favorite Tracks: Big Exit, A Place Called Home, One Line, Beautiful Feeling, The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore, We Float. Least Favorite Tracks: Horses In My Dreams

It's a good album, but not a great one. A lot of the songs sound very similar to one another. Where they vary, the album is a lot more exciting (This is Love, This Mess We're In, Kamikaze). Dry and Rid of Me are far more interesting records.

I still don't get why she's on here at all let alone multiple times.

Overall: 9/10 PJ Harvey is just in a world of her own. Her songs are simultaneously cool, fun and beautiful. I've actually listened to most of her discography since I got Dry in this list a while ago and I love that even though they all sound like her, they also sound very different from each other. This is one of her best and the vibes are immaculate. Fav Song: Horses in My Dreams Least Fav Song: This is Love

POV: Your friend is driving you around in his mom’s car because his is in the shop. You don’t want to listen to the radio so you decide to rifle through her CD booklet. You pick one at random and pop it in. It’s boring. I like some of the PJ’s songs, but this is peak 2000 Toyota Corolla music imo. I unfortunately only started vibing at the chorus of We Float. However, I will give props for probably inspiring a lot of In Rainbows

Fucking hell

5/5, this album was fantastic, I was torn between 4/5 for a while but the last couple tracks swayed me. The album does it all and does it well, most tracks felt unique and well produced, the antepenultimate taking you high, followed by the horses taking you low was cool, but coupled with the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ resolution to end the album, truly impressed me. This is a prime example of the necessity of this website

Unreal, very Patti smith

Not come across PJ Harvey before. Unfortunately, I couldn't stand her voice!

PJ showing the world she can climb the charts keeping her alternative integrity perfectly untouched. Monumental.

The undisputed queen of indie rock pulls out her masterpiece!

Pulsating alternative rock. Even without Thom Yorke's cameos there are shades of Radiohead there. PJ Harvey certainly does concept albums well, these songs are indicative of New York

You know, I didn't hate this album. I didn't love it either. It was just ... okay. I enjoyed listening to it in the background as I got stuff done. There aren't really any standout tracks and, on a whole, the album felt like a bit of a jumbled mess. Maybe it's my lack of connection to the material. The wiki says that this was a bit of a love letter to New York. That city doesn't need a love letter. It needs a tetanus shot and a month in rehab. But it wasn't bad by any stretch of the imagination. It really wasn't. Perfectly adequate. Extremely middling.

Lol

Wow. Ive been Polly Jean adjacent for a number of years and enjoyed some singles without ever getting into it. How I regret that now! This is great fun. The energy and drive at the top of the album hits hard and then it gives way to the great lyrics, the beautifully balanced vibes and the more spacious sound. I listened to this 4 times in a day and will keep doing so around engaging with her back catalogue

🥲

As well as introducing me to some new artists, this project has been a welcome reminder of how much I bloody love PJ Harvey. I’ve already given five stars to Dry and Let England Shake, and this isn’t going to break the streak. At the risk of sounding like her mum, it's nice to hear her sounding happy.

One of my absolute favourite albums. No notes. We Float is perfection. The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore remains one of the most exquisite live experiences of my life. Just pure love.

Beste plaat van PJ. Zo vaak gedraaid al en blijft elke keer prachtig.

8/10 Was not familiar with her game. But I really enjoyed this piece and will be returning again.

What a great album, the rock the softness in parts, surprise Thom Yorke, I really had a fun time and will be back again.

This was my second PJ Harvey album to listen to on this list, the first, being 'Rid of Me.' I enjoyed this album, albeit not as much as I enjoyed 'Rid of Me.' I thought the vocals here were fantastic, as were the guitars and drums. The songs featuring Thom Yorke were really great too. "Big Exit" and "You Said Something" were my favorite tracks here.

Альбом, уже ставший классикой и обязательным для прослушивания любому любителю рока. Для себя отмечу песни с Томом Йорком из Radiohead. 7 баллов из 10.

Really enjoyed this. More rocky and less experimental than I expected. Such a powerful voice. A few real banging tracks. Liked the Thom Yorke cameos

Great storytelling sick guitar. Loved the little piano/organ situation on a track I can't remember the name of and can always get around a Thom Yorke feature. Kamikaze is my highlight.

I'm sorry but this was just boring to me. A three for not being bad, but not being good either.

Favorite Song(s): This is Love, This Mess We're In This sounds like something my dad would play when I was a kid (in a good way). Weirdly very soothing to me. In addition, her voice sounds a bit like Lana del Rey.

This album sounds so 90s to me. At least it did when it started. As it got closer to the end I was like oh shit, this is where Patti Smith's influence had taken us in the early 2000's. As I was thinking how much she sounded like Patti on the song "This is Love," the very next track was called, "HORSES in My Dreams." Coincidence?! Probably, but damn she was serving my Patti on a few of those songs. Vocally at least. I didn't feel the feverish raw energy that Patti brought me and the songs kind of sounded like the epitome of late 90s/early 2000s alternative. I'm sure at the time it was a head turning sound, plus we were visited by everyones favorite alien, Thom Yorke, on "This Mess We're In," so I'm not going to come down on it too hard.

Sparse, very 2000s. I like Thom Yorke's appearance. I also like this record a ton more than "Let England Shake". A little bit more rock foward, with some slow spots here and there. Favorite tracks: "Big Exit", "One Line", "The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore"

I really want to be a PJ Harvey guy, but I'm just not a PJ Harvey guy. A couple of tracks stood out on this to me, but the combo of her vocals + the music just doesn't work for me. I'd do 2.5 stars if I could, but by sticking to my rounding down policy I feel like I'm betraying the music fan I wish I was.

Two albums by PJ Harvey in one week!?!? Am I being punished for something?

As much as I try to like PJ Harvey, I always end up getting annoyed with her music.

Disappointing

PJ is an artist I’ve long respected more than I loved. I first heard her when Let England Shake was released and topped many album of the year lists, but while I liked that album it never penetrated my brain like SFTC,SFTE has. I’ve read that it’s some people’s favorite Harvey album, and now I’m firmly in that camp. What a record. The entire record is great, and there are some highlights in Big Exit, The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Who’re, The Mess We’re In, and This Is Love. However, the track that really penetrated my brain is the closer We Float. It’s easily my favorite PJ Harvey song and it’s been tough to remove its chorus from my head since I heard it.

#122/1001 🇬🇧 Simply perfect. I love Polly Harvey and this sits with Rid of Me at the top of an astounding body of work. It's without a doubt her most accessible record. From the beauty of You Said Something to the banshee's yell of Kamikaze, this record twists and turns in all directions. Thom Yorke guests on 2 tracks but this album truly owes more to collaborators Mick Harvey and Rob Ellis. Best Tracks: The Whores Hustle...., You Said Something, We Float, Good Fortune, This Mess We're In.

PJ is one of my all-time favourite artists, and this is my third-most listened to of all her records according to lastFM. But my top two are, unforgivably, not on the 1001 list, so this is getting 5* in their stead. Not that it's not worth it: Harvey has a Bowie-like ability to change her sound with every album while still being recognisably PJ Harvey. This is her take on classic rock and is perhaps her least "interesting" record but also her most melodic and soulful, crammed with great riffs and a powerful sense of yearning.

LOVE LOVE LOVE!!! ICON, COOL, NOT A SINGLE SKIP, PJ I WISH I WAS AS COOL AS YOU.

relistening since this morning cause what an awesome album!!! first song kinda feels like hole and then it moves on to like bjorkish fionaapplish boaish collectively very 90s the whores hustle and the hustlers whore is a phenomenal song-- "speak to me of heroin and speed, of genocide and suicide, speak to me the language of love, the language of violence, the language of the heart" AND THOM YORK IS THERE TOO hell yeah awesome. music.

I really enjoyed this album. One of my favorites from this this.

I spent the early 00's constantly reading spin telling me to listen to PJ Harvey and I never did. That was my bad. Great record.

Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea I listened to this a lot when it came out, mainly on the strength of This Mess We’re In, which I loved. It really reminds me of coming home from Japan for Christmas in 2000. I haven’t listened to it in a long time, so I’m glad it came up. Big Exit, is a cracking start, great lyrics, kind of punkish and new wave but accessible. Good Fortune is similar, a bit less aggressive perhaps, but a great song with a great hook and an evocative lyric. A Place Called Home is excellent too, from relatively simple instrumentation and arrangements she manages to make very engaging and interesting songs. One Line has a kinship with those first 3 songs, but again is great, with a vaguely unsettling atmosphere. Beautiful Feeling is fantastic, has a very folky feel, like the Unthanks, with those great backing vocals from Thome Yorke. Superb song. The Whores Hustle and the Hustler’s Whore is the kind of spiritual centre of the album, a great melody with an undeniable edge and a searching, impressionistic lyric sketching loneliness and isolation in a big city. This Mess We’re In, still great, a lovely melody with a sad and resigned feeling and two great vocals from them both. You Said Something is another great melody and hook - again the strummed guitar and minimal instrumentation conjures up an atmospheric and intriguing song. Kamikaze has that aggressive punky edge to it, and nice unhinged-ness suiting the title and coming after two pretty pop melodies This is Love I really remember from when it came out, love the swooping riff and that great tinkly piano. Another great melody and lyric too. Horses in my Dream, feel like the title is nod to Patti Smith, who she obviously shares a commonality with, but it’s a great and haunting low tempo ballad, with an edgy folkiness to it. Her voice sounds great on this one too. We Float is great too, a sense of ending and coming to terms with the end of a relationship, with that hazy drifting chorus with that superb melody. Hidden tracks were such a CD thing, and This Wicked Tongue is a good aggressive and angry song, but feels kind of unnecessary now. Doesn’t detract from the quality of the album at all though. This has reminded me what a great album this is, kind of amazing how engaging and interesting each song is, despite it in the main being relatively simple drums, strummed guitars and bass with minor additional instrumentation (although from my limited understanding there are some interesting chords happening). Like Let England Shake, I can see how she might not be everyone’s cup of tea, and how if you don’t buy into her style you probably wonder what all the fuss is about, but I think she’s fantastic and like Let England Shake this is an easy 5. 📖🌃📖🌊📖 Playlist submission: Still love This Mess We’re In, but I’ll go Beautiful Feeling

My 1001th album, and it’s a cracker, probably my favourite PJ Harvey album, very accessible but also brilliant. Love Thom York appearance on this too.

Polly hits the apex of her songwriting Big Exit, This Is Love, Kamikaze, Good Fortune, We Float are all tremendous songs

Amazing alt rock record. So glad it's in this list otherwise I probably would have never heard of it.

Great album. Love her voice and the way she sings.

LOVE IT! Never heard of her. Fantastic

I was unaware of this terrific album. In my defense, we had two kids under three at the time.

The best album ever made.

Brilliant album

YEAH!! Love PJ love this record! Easy 5/5 for me on this one!

Thom Yorke on a pj Harvey album?!? Sign me up!

Wow this is fantastic. I knew a few of the songs already but it’s really incredible as a whole. The standouts for me are the songs with Thom.

Two PJ records in one week! I dithered over giving a 5 star rating to Rid Of Me, because I love it but it’s simply not as flawless as this. So I’m essentially saying this would get a 5 plus, if such a thing existed. Every song is great; the beautiful softer moments just as much as the powerful rock tracks. The opening bars make me feel as excited now as they did when I first heard it age 13. Still looking for a karaoke place where I can belt out Good Fortune.

PJ Harvey was not fucking around when she put this album together. A lot of fantastic songs. Excellent stuff! Fave track - the duet with Thom Yorke was great an all, but I have to go with "Good Fortune" overall, but like three quarters of the other tracks come in a close second place!

I love PJ Harvey, and I love this album. One of her best. 5 stars.

Great album, great songwriter. She’s influential as hell, there’s not much more I can say about her

This Mess We're In - awesome Kamikaze - rock & roll The Wicked Tounge - Hidden track but on another spotify session album good stuff

I’m ashamed I hadn’t heard this earlier. What a marvelous album.

I love this album!

AMAZING album that I was unaware was a thing. Added it to my list of go-to albums and could listen to this on repeat with no issues.

If someone wanted to know what the year 2000 sounded like, I would point them to this album. I’ve never heard of PJ Harvey before (and am so glad this introduced her to me!) because she is quite the badass. And Thom Yorke on a few songs?! That just made this even more insanely awesome!

(4/5) Harvey is just one of those artists I've been aware of, probably heard some popular tracks, but never got into because that "recommended artists" list that she's on is just too big. I've only got 24 hours in a day and a huge number of other things that take priority. Apologies to Ms. Harvey. This project has exposed me to a few of those and I'm glad we finally got around to her. I liked it, and recognized "This Is Love" immediately. In fact, I was enjoying it enough that when I got to that track (buried towards the end I might add..) it pushed my opinion to a '4'. A low '4', but justified because it's solid rock -- heavily 90s-coded -- and she's a woman. There's not enough women represented on the list as I've already bemoaned, so she was probably going to get a bump anyway. That track made it an easy decision. Additionally, I listened to all of it on YouTube which included some of her music videos and ... she's 'easy' on the eyes. 😉. Talented and good looking? That's a nice combo.

This one missed me by a mile. The year 2000 saw me, goofy young guy halfway down with college, immersed in Nu-Metal and Eminem. I wouldn’t have had the patience to give this album a chance. Which is wild because it is right up my alley. Not a good look for me, I guess, but an honest one. The songwriting is great and the sound is perfectly alt-tock. It comes in right at a 3.5 that I’m rounding up to a 4 because I expect to replay a few of these tracks in the near future. It’s an album I want to sit with just a little longer.

Heard Before? Not in years, but I've gone through a PJ phase more than once. Notes: - first listen was fairly uneventful. the tracks i remembered ("Good Fortune", "You Said Something", "We Float") jumped out, but a lot felt like filler. - production is part of the problem: the mix is all vocals and rhythm guitar, with all the nifty extra touches buried. even the piano on the piano-led numbers is oddly quiet. - on second listen I got a better feel for the songwriting and was as impressed as I've ever been with her. - the decision to cede lead vocals to Thom Yorke is a real momentum killer, like throwing a wet blanket onto the album. yuck. - thankfully it bounces back with two of the most engaging tracks, and the whole second side is then terrific. Verdict: This really seems like her fourth or fifth best album. Still exciting and vital, but not innovative or definitive. Listen Again? Unlikely. But good to revisit. And this time around I really dug "Kamikaze".

This girl clearly rocks. I especially liked "The Line," "We Float," and the Thom Yorke collab. I like her rawness and style but I also like her voice. This album came out when I was in the midst of a long female-vocalist hating era, so I passed on it at the time. I wonder if I would have liked it then.

She’s never lost her distinctive melodic lurches and vocal swerve, though I miss the rawness of the first two albums. A pretty good PJ Harvey album, which means it’s excellent.

Pretty good, although her most straightforward record, and her most Patti Smith-inspired (in a good way; the excellent "Good Fortune" echoes "Frederick" nicely). Spoiled partway through by the atonal whinings of a gammy-eyed ogre, as was fashionable. Scrapes a 4 overall.

Great album. PJ, both voice and words, works extremely well for me. One of my favorite artists, and this album one of my faves from her. I'm going with 4 indie stars but question if I actually think it's a 5. Because along with Cat Power, I'm a big PJ fan and this is one of her best full albums.

First saw Polly Jean live in 2025 and this album has similar feeling to that show. Great range of styles from Big Exit to quieter more subdued The Mess We're In with Thom Yorke then back to harder Kamikazee and This is Love. Requires more than one listen to appreciate the lyrics.

Very tempted to give this a 5. This is a New York album — maybe the single quintessential New York album — the way, like, After Hours or Do the Right Thing are New York movies. It also feels like such a landmark turn-of-the-century record (and was, fittingly, released Jan. 1, 2000). This and its predecessor, Is This Desire, probably represent the PJ Harvey sound I best connect to, a midpoint between the earlier grunge sound and the art rock tendencies that later took over her work. Fantastic opening run of tracks, but it's the closing songs that are the true all-timers here. There's Horses In My Dreams, in conversation with Belle & Sebastian's similarly themed closer to If You're Feeling Sinister, and also evocative of Michael Clayton. And then We Float stands as a career high, with such a massive, life-affirming chorus. What a beautiful album!

This was a surprise. I went into it only really knowing PJ Harvey from "Down By The Water," and came out wondering how this album flew under my radar for so long. Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea is a confident, well-crafted album; it's equal parts gritty and melodic, with a great balance of energy and emotion. It feels like one of those records that grows even more rewarding with each listen.

Absolutely deserving of the Mercury Prize. PJ Harvey’s songwriting is haunting and even Thom Yorke blesses us with his presence. I wonder if she might have released another Mercury Prize winning album precisely a decade later, that we could enjoy later into the journey of this list? Let’s hope.

<3

I feel compelled to listen to this again in the near future while at the same time not thinking it is spectacular.

This album is the most mid album I have gotten so far

Not bad, again not my cup of tea but not too bad.

Enchanting in its melancholy. This one is a callback to early 2000 with their uncertainty and dread. Tom York’s cameo was a surprise but a welcome one.

I thoroughly enjoyed the album's instrumentals, but the lyrics felt overly bland, and the lead singer had the same flow for most of the tracks. Listening to this album, I felt as though this was a softer, female-led Nirvana, trying rock instrumentals of different intensities with a lack of depth in the lyrics and singing. Overall, 2/5.

She’s overrated

I don't think I love this vocal style, or this singer song writing style. I don't feel anything strong on any of these songs. They don't grate or irritate me, but they also don't compel me either. I do like the track with Thom York. Repeats: this mess were in

Gof I hated this. Just noise

Scattered rythm, but good voice. Songs are sooo long and for what.

Not for me

Ноу

I just don't get the appeal

One good song, the rest sucked. One star

just not my vibe, but go girl ☆

My Absolute favourite PJ Harvey album, where many of her best songs were located, including: This is Love; You Said Something and Beautiful Feeling. None of her other records come close to the mastery she exhibits here for melody and lyrics. Boffo.

Really vibed with this! Angry when it needed to be, introspective when it needed to be. Very catchy songs, and great variety. What a treat!

208. Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea - PJ Harvey (2000) 9.18.26 Variety: 5 Adequacy: 5 Listenability: 5 Uniqueness: 5 Emotionality: 5 = 5.0 "How did we get here?/ To this point in living?/ I held my breath/ And you said something" I saw PJ Harvey play the bulk of this album live as the opening act for U2 during their Elevation tour. And frankly, she blew them out of the water. They were good. I've only seen them live the one time, but by all accounts they pull out all the stops and deliver a good time, every time. But where their set was full of a lumbering bombast, Harvey's was immediate and electrifying. And despite being in a large arena, it felt intimate. It was her, the backing band, and a very simple light show. It felt propulsive and was sharp as fuck. She was magnetic a stage personality as anyone I've seen live, and easily and fully absorbed the attention of the crowd, even from several hundred yards up in the nosebleed section. She flew through most of the album without a pause in between songs, and they were as close to the studio versions as could be. Was very impressed, and always wanted to try and catch her live again, but it never happened. I was already primed though having listened to the album over and over a zillion times, and to be perfectly honest, seeing her in support was what got me and my future wife to pull the trigger on getting tickets. Several albums have popped up on the list that have gotten me excited, but few have been as sure thing as far as ratings go. I know this one back to front, and it's a rare no-skip album for me, if that gives you any hints as to my thoughts. THE TRACKS "Big Exit" - PJ Harvey is up in the top of my favorite rock vocalists. Even when she uses effects, like she does a lot on this album, the warm, smooth feeling is never lost. On this one we get a very tightly modulated echo that does a really good job of emulating a live stage presence, that along with the reverb on the guitar and the very upfront and dry drums really does a great job of putting me back at that concert I mentioned. This one opens with some decidedly 60's-ish jangly guitar sounds, and we get some trademark PJ Harvey yelling to start things off. When the bass kicks in we fall right into a groove that feels decidedly BIG for her. The dark, warm, personal vibe she is known for is not gone by any means, it's just writ large, and there's a tighter , more focused and melodic lean to things. I don't quite remember, but I think the album just previous to this one included a lot or orchestral, and dancey bits, and was MUCH more low key. This does not feel like an incredibly self-conscious stab at the mainstream by any means, but I think it ended up there accidentally. There are some stranger in a strange land vibes on this one, and that sense of paranoia and uncomfortably wary feeling will come and go throughout. Harvey's an old hand by this point at delivering when it comes to interesting lyrics, and here she's coming in full force with some great imagery to support this whole atmosphere. Favorite part is the bridge where it quiets down and she gets all menacing, and the utter professionalism and versatility of Mick Harvey ( of the Birthday Party and Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds fame) and Rob Ellis give her all the leeway she needs to go in any and all directions here. "Good Fortune" - Harvey I think has been the true heir to Patti Smith since the early 90s, but it's on this album that she most reminds me of her, down to the passionate delivery, yelps and the extended "oOoOoOoOo''s at the end of some lines. Even the instrumentation on this track in particular makes the comparison stronger than it is on other tracks on the album. It's not a one to one, and Harvey never loses her identity, but it's there. This one tackles the high of new love, but it's a more mature version that what you get in a lot of songs, where it can come off as naive or possessed of some goofy moon-eyed optimism. Harvey's version of this still retains a darkness, and a roughness around the edges that indicates this relationship has at best a 50/50 chance, but it's going to be interesting none the less. And on top of that it's a goddamn catchy song. For comparison - "Dancing Barefoot" by Patti Smith: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z9G8BdnFGs&list=RD1Z9G8BdnFGs&start_radio=1 "A Place Called Home" - Harvey gives U2 a run for their money with a BIG MUSIC style entry. It starts off pretty and melodic with what sounds like maybe a harpsichord (?) underneath a piano. There's also maybe an accordion which comes in later as well ( and sticks around), which adds some cool earthy accents. This one feels like someone soldiering on through hardships, and while maybe not lying to themselves, at least being a bit more hopeful than circumstance might be willing to allow. The tone is definitely not cheery. The future is most definitely uncertain for this person, but it's not all foretold and it's probably not an easy journey ahead. "One Line" - Another driving BIG song. This time with a lover reaching out across time to consider a memory of someone to whom the connection was never fully severed. There's a quiet yearning here that bubbles underneath the enormity of the sound as it crashes down and comes back each time in greater strength, like a tide threatening to pull you out to sea. Thom Yorke provides backing vocals and apparently some keyboard work. Introspective as it is, it has enough sharp corners. And while the instrumental break before the outro gears you up for an explosive ending, we end on a quiet, very considered moment. Like the narrator has finished their cigarette, and their brief thought of old love, and has decided to walk back inside from the balcony, where it'll disappear from their surface thoughts but will linger on underneath, ready to return like some old injury that flares up every so often. "Beautiful Feeling" - We go small for this one. Small but INTENSE, with Mick Harvey's chunky, powerful bass work guiding the piece, and Yorke providing more background vocals once more. Harvey's vocals on this are breathy and drawn out and approach the beautiful side of delivery, getting smeared and gauzy in the chorus, with some processing that sounds like they reversed the feed on her mic so that the speaker was used as the microphone ( wild speculation on my part - but the Beatles pulled off that trick and think had a similarly buzzy, hissy effect), and a constant hiss suffuses the whole thing, created an atmosphere of languid infatuation. There's a notable absence of a percussion track on this, which lends it a ghostly, airy feel as well. "The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore" - The percussion is back in full force here as we get a wall of sound to open this impressionistic and paranoid snapshot of a decidedly carnivorous big city experience. Mick Harvey's got some sort of awesome feedback or pedal effect that sounds like it's doubling his bass line, but slightly off register so it kind of almost slaps up against itself, and adds to the disorienting effect that the lyrics seem to be trying to get across. Harvey also gets to deliver some of her trademark yelps on here, which is awesome, and the sound in general hearkens back to her earlier 90s stuff, but with a bigger, fuller sound. "This Mess We're In" - Yorke is back once more, this time for a proper duet. This one pulls off the neat trick of never feeling like a Radiohead track despite the fact that Yorke is so normally overwhelmingly idiosyncratically THOM YORKE that you would think it impossible for him to not just completely take over and make it his. But he's got PJ Harvey to contend with, and neither subsume the other with the sheer force of their personality, but instead meld into some sort of weird amalgamation that thoroughly works and feels like two intertwined inner monologues. Maybe from people who aren't even together. "Somewhere Out There" for disaffected Gen-Xers? Neither are stranger to being great duet partners, with Harvey having some great ones with Nick Cave, and Yorke most notably with Bjork. this works really well, with neither stepping on any toes. I even like Harvey's call and response spoken word parts. "You Said Something" - My favorite song on the album, and maybe the easiest to like for any newcomers. It's got notes that are bright and hopeful and beautifully nostalgic, and sweeping, without ever becoming too poppy or overbearingly positive. The instrumental bits on here are OUTSTANDING, with what I think are keyboards set to give an accordion adjacent sound, the giant bass as warm as could be, and little touches like the tambourine accents all adding up to a really emotionally effecting atmosphere. We get more snapshot memories of some city life, this time glimpsed as partial memories of a night (or a series of nights that maybe blurred together?) where the particulars of what happened or what was said are so much less important than the way the memory feels. "Kamikaze" - We get another bit of a throwback track, with the echoes of the Rid of Me era, with nervy guitar, and chunky frenetic bass work giving a sense of danger and threat. But again, the sound is BIGGER and fuller and Harvey feels so much more at home in her own skin, with everything feeling more tied together and the music not as sparse and overwhelmed by her delivery. She gets into the yips and yelps and powerful high registers but it's more integrated with everything else. She adds that flanged out, buzzy distortion to her vocals again which make the yells sound like some ecstatic, unhinged loss of inhibition. Easily the most cranked up, energetic track on the album. "This Is Love" - I specifically remember this one during her live set was the moment that I keyed in and was hypnotized, with the lights exploding in swirls of colors every time the chorus came in. I was able to find the set list for this show, and looks like this was second after "The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore". And apparently she played less of the album than I thought ( only 5 out of 11), with the back half consisting of some prior cuts. Despite not being the loudest or fastest song on the album ,this feels like the heaviest to me with the ENORMOUS bass, and Harvey in full Raw-era Iggy Pop delivery. Another tale of infatuation, this time full of sensuality and an overpoweringly manic feeling of loss of control. This one is Harvey showing off her raw power. "Horses in My Dreams" - And we need a rest spot after collappsing on teh floor exhausted after the last track. But this is no lazy ass 10 minute headlock in the middle of the ring. Instead we get some intricate, and showy catch maneuvering, with Harvey giving us a tiny preview of her White Chalk sound, with some gentle piano, measured guitar, and lumbering waltzy bass that's all very pretty, and slightly menacing until the chorus where we briefly come up above the choppy waves and take a big gasp of sweet air. And with a bittersweet feel that comes at us from the opposite of the norm. Where most songs that pull off this trick have a bright poppy sound, with dark lyrics, here we get positive lyrics, with a depressive tone. Beautiful stuff. "We Float" - This one almost sounds like a leftover from her previous album, with its dance beat drum loop. But the sparse piano keeps it grounded, and Harvey's multitracked vocal delivery keeps it fairly well integrated with the overall sound. It's when the chorus comes in with an uplifting boom that the song really lands. It's a similar bright moment to the one in the last song, but on sterioids. It ends the album on a hopeful if realistically beautiful note. In the same kind of way that Mike Leigh film might, full of ambiguity and unrealized but open potentiality. I'm reminded of the lyric from "Don't Let's Start" by They Might Be Giants - "No one in the world ever gets what they want and that is beautiful/ Everybody dies frustrated and sad and that is beautiful". * "This Wicked Tongue" - This one is a bonus track that was on some releases, and while not essential, is still very good. It's got a a much more pronounced faux-live sound to it, and feels the tiniest bit repetitve of stuff that maybe was done on the other songs, so it's easy to see why it was left off. HIGHLIGHTS - Every last part MIDLIGHTS - LOWLIGHTS - FINAL THOUGHTS Harvey has three more albums on the list, which I think is just fine. I would have chosen White Chalk over Let England Shake, but that's still a good one. I've heard most of her stuff up to Let England Shake, and can say she's got a pretty impeccable string going all the way back to the 90s. I think this is her best album though. It's a great synthesis of all of her earlier, more abrasive and full throatedly emotional and more rocking material, and her later more melodic and prettier stuff. This is the album I'd choose to introduce a new listener, mainly because it represents her at her most accessible, without misrepresenting her sound. White Chalk, while I love it is more ethereal and artsy fartsy, and would be advanced listening in my opinion. It's only been maybe less than a year since I last listened to this for pleasure, and have to say I did not get sick of it one bit, even with multiple listens all day long. It completely holds up and deserves its place in my personal canon of what I would consider to be the sort of grown up alternative rock that people like Nick Cave, Radiohead, Beck ( eventually) and few others were able to pull off in an era where the mainstream musical culture otherwise seemed to be descending into a mire of boy bands, novelty electronic music, and post grunge nu-metal. Harvey was one of the bright lights at a time when I was quickly losing enthusiasm for music in general, and did more than most to inspire me to hang in there through those lean years. This is easily a 5-star entry for me and while I'll admit her whole thing is not for everyone, no one can deny how well-crafted and accessible this one is, especially compared with her more ragged and jagged early 90s sound. She's one of those artists who evolved significantly with every release, and as a result remains one of the few you can listen to and never lack for variety. Possible turn-Offs might include: - the occasional bit of high pitched yelping - a mostly downbeat tone - some trigger-warning moments for Radiohead haters - more trigger warnings for dude-bros (I've seen user reviews from more than a few of these chuds) who can't abide strong, confident and mature women kicking ass in a rock space You Might enjoy this if you: - like good fucking music - tight, ultra competent playing and production and ear-achingly good arrangements - low key but catchy as hell melodies - a thoroughly bittersweet and often ambiguous atmosphere PLAYLIST ALTERATIONS - No notes. Perfect. FURTHER LISTENING Precursors: - Wave by the Patti Smith Group - Frank's Wild Years by Tom Waits - Anima Animus by the Creatures - Surfer Rosa by Pixies - All That You Can't Leave Behind by U2 Contemporaries: - Pod by the Breeders - Murder Ballads by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - XO by Elliott Smith - Dynamite by Stina Nordenstam - I See A Darkness by Bonnie Prince Billy - To Venus and Back by Tori Amos - OK Computer by Radiohead Descendants: - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood by Neko Case - You Are Free by Cat Power - My Woman by Angel Olsen - Titanic Rising by Weyes Blood

a artista que eu mais me identifico dessa época dela pela sonoridade e personalidade também e esse álbum sedimentou muito isso pra mim. mãezinha

This was mostly excellent. An evolution from her earlier work but no less original. Normally anything that includes Thom Yorke post OK Computer would lose points because of his insufferable nature/voice/attitude, but I’m not going to let him ruin what is a great album. Her third album “To Bring You My Love” is still my favourite, but I really enjoyed listening to this again.