Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea

It is my own failing that I have not gotten more into PJ Harvey. Her first couple records are these noisy scary weird goth freakouts that are so intense that they are hard to listen to sometimes. Dark brilliance. But this one is big rock big pop songs, and even though she's still incisive, spooky, and intense, it's not easy listening, it's good listening.

Whilst listening to this album, I was wondering why I haven't listened to her before now. She's like a cross between Nick Cave and Turin Brakes. Brilliant songs!

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.

Surprisingly good. Sounds like Bjork if she was born in Bushwick

I'd always heard good things about PJ Harvey but had never really had any exposure. Came in expecting something between Tori Amos and Fiona Apple but with a Joan Jett attitude, but it actually leaned more post-punk than I'd anticipated. At times minimalist, at others raucous, it maintained an emotionality that was measured and and evocative, even if swaths of it (some of the higher pitched vocal gymnastics were very grating) were not really my bag. Still, it's a 3.5/5 that I'm rounding up, and it encouraged me to check out more of her surprisingly wide discography.

Interested to see what is here. Finally my 60s streak is over! This is a name I associate with officianados and it bypassed me at the time. ------------- America worship, dark undercurrents. I really liked the darkness of the track with Thom Yorke - it was a welcome tonal shift from the jangly acoustic rock which was the majority of the album. Kamikaze has some fire and aggression that seems to be otherwise missing. I really like the drums here, where's this on the rest of the album? Otherwise I don't really see it. Due to how high the vocals are in the mix you really can pickup on the tepid mundanity of the lyrical content. It has a country twang (Makes sense with the context on wiki) that isn't her usual jam. I gave it a second listen and definitely enjoyed it slightly better overall. 3*

I really like PJ Harvey but never counted this among my favourites of hers, though on a closer re-listen I'm not sure why! I knew it was good, but it's actually great. I actually don't always love her voice – it can be a bit nondescript and I often wish it was as gritty and commanding as her music. But she's on fine form here and the songs are so robust that my quibbles hardly matter.

Another artist I haven’t paid enough attention to. This is a cracking album. I saw references to Chrissie Hynde, Patti Smith and Siouxsie Sioux on Wikipedia which is a fair comment but I think the music behind her voice is actually better than those. Maybe because for me this is new and fresh though? Good to have varied songs - sounds just as good when slow and soulful or when rocking. Thom Yorke seemed to complement her voice very well too. Heard it through 3 times already and will be coming back to it I’m sure. Looking forward to hearing the other 3 on this list.

Possibly the coolest woman in rock!! One of my favourite albums of all time. Great song after great song with You Said Something and We Float deserving the 5 stars this album gets just on their own

My fave PJ Harvey album and with my two fave songs (This Mess We're in/We Float) - quite clearly the sound of an artist at the absolute peak of her powers, oozing confidence, banger after banger after banger. Also, Thom Yorke is on it a few times, so that's nice for moi.

Actually really good, 8/10.

Oh, Thom Yorke's in this?

Fav song: Big Exit

A long time favourite.

First thoughts: Are you serious? Yet another PJ Harvey album? But this one is very middle of the road and therefore pretty enjoyable without containing any real hits. favourite: "This Is Love" 3,5

Cool album. Lots of 2 chord structures, very indie, sultry and cool. Had some elements of Jeff Buckley in it

Curiosly (infamously?), one of Cristgau’s rare A+’s (and thus his favorite album of Harvey’s catalogue). I don’t agree — like most fans, I think I prefer a few of her more art rock/ tumultuous records— but I do enjoy, as a change of PJ pace, the more straightforward melodies and upbeat emotions she provides on this one. 4.5 stars

This is nice. I like her voice and the production is fairly timeless. Most of these songs could be released today and sound contemporary.

Hørt This mess we’re in. Thom yorke! I like. Liker stilen på albumet, men den treffer liksom ikke helt. Det er close

Meh, Ingenting som utprega seg. Men kul bakgrunnsmusikk

Not the punk ethos of earlier PJ Harvey, but still flashes of fierceness in a grown up way. And the love affair in NYC theme works. “Good Fortune” was my favorite.

I LOVE THIS ALBUMM!!!! Actually listened to it the day before. 4.5 stars!

really enjoyed this one!

PJ is cool and so is this album. Another musician I’ve gotten into late. Big Exit is my pick of the bunch

I am not familiar with PJ Harvey. On first listen, I find her voice grating. There are a couple of tracks that had me almost enjoying them, but each one had me wishing more that it was over. Not an album or artist I’m likely to seek more from any time soon.

I would say that if you want to understand PJ Harvey, you have to listen to this album. It is her best! While she did release a few wonderful, dark albums later on, this one is more than just dark; it reveals her in all her splendor, ranging from black-and-white to full color. It is an alternative statement and a musical processing of her time in the urban sprawl of New York. "Good Fortune" sounds like an unreleased Patti Smith song—a defiant outcry. The beautiful "A Place Called Home" explores the search for inner peace and a home where only love matters. "Beautiful Feeling" marks an emotional core of the album, captivating the listener with its vulnerable, almost weightless atmosphere. Yet, what follows is the album's centerpiece: "The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore." The song is built on a driving, staccato blues-rock riff, thunderous drums, and a noticeably more aggressive vocal performance that recalls PJ Harvey’s earlier, uncompromising work. It is simply magnificent—dark and menacing, reflecting her view of New York. "This Mess We're In"—featuring Thom Yorke’s unmistakable voice, muted melancholic guitar chords, and a minimalist rhythm—inevitably works its way into your consciousness. "This Is Love" is pure punk. The track is dominated by a heavy, gritty, and intensely driving blues-rock guitar riff—a sound often compared to garage punk elements. Yet, the very next track—the longest on the album—shifts the pace to a tender, unhurried tempo. "Horses in My Dreams" is built on a slow, hypnotic rhythm, with PJ Harvey singing over minimally plucked guitar and a gentle backdrop of organ and piano. "We Float" is a masterpiece of intimate pop poetry; decades later, artists like Lana Del Rey would draw upon this style. The lyrics take an unflinching look at the failings of modern society. It is a radical reckoning with greed and the fallacy that material wealth equates to freedom! After a few minutes of silence, the hidden track "This Wicked Tongue" follows on my CD. It is an uncompromising rocker that, with its distorted, gritty guitar riffs and reverberating vocals, recalls the raw, aggressive era of her masterpiece Rid of Me (1993). I consider this album a milestone of alternative rock at the turn of the millennium. It showcases a versatile artist who simply gets so much right.

I think this was my favorite of hers so far. It started out sounding like kind of generic 90s alt-rock, but starting with The Whores Hustle, the hook was set and I liked it. Going back to listen again.

Not really a fan of the voice vs the guitar.

Great album

This is a difficult one to rate. In 2000/2001, this album became my life: I styled myself after PJ and I told everyone that this was my favourite album of all time. And then I kinda forgot all about it. I haven't listened to it in over twenty years. The second half of the album is a lot stronger than the first. Yes, the Thom Yorke duet is a classic (I have listened to this over the years!) and Kamikaze is BRILLIANT. PJ's voice is rich and layered. The songwriting is strong. I just know I won't reach for the album as a casual listen. It'll slip into my record collection and sit there forgotten for another twenty years.

not as good as Joni Mitchell’s Blue

I hadn’t heard of PJ Harvey before this listen and was mostly impressed! The first half of this album was really nice, gave me some Patti Smith vibes. But I thought it slowed down towards the back half, personally. The Thom Yorke contributions were okay, but I’ve never been a huge Radiohead fan. All in all, I’d listen again!

Great album

PJ Harvey is among the greatest women in rock the past couple of decades. I probably prefer To Bring You My Love, but this was a stellar record

This was the last PJ Harvey album on my list, and I was about to write it off before even pressing play. Turns out it's brilliant. Maybe that's because it sounds so much like Patti Smith, whom I adore. Honestly, if someone had told me Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea was a long-lost Patti Smith album, I probably would have believed them. It's a great example of how sometimes simplicity beats angry, raw, edgy garbage.

Forgettable, just kinda slid off me.

me gustoo, fue tranki para trabajar

Easy listening. Nothing too interesting about it. 3/5 Favorite Songs: This Mess We're In Kamikaze This is Love

Pretty good album.

Liked this one better than Dry, but still not really a fan. I enjoyed a few of them though.

I wasn’t expecting much based on the last PJ Harvey album, but I can honestly say I didn’t mind the music….I was just genuinely bored by it. It didn’t elicit any real emotions and it was just noise in the background of what I was doing. The bar needs to be set higher to be on this list IMO and just background noise doesn’t cut it.

I want to spend more time with this one, because it should be right in my wheelhouse, but I’m not quite there yet. I love the sparse and unique instrumentals, but the lyrics and the vocals don’t land for me yet. It suggests the soundtrack to wandering around midtown late on a weeknight, killing time waiting for the late commuter train home, wandering past closed corporate offices, shuttered lunch joints and empty bodegas - like you’re left behind in a world that everyone else escaped a long time ago, a feeling that New York has kind of perfected. This album hits that melancholic rudderlessness pretty well for me (bonus points on the scrabble board for that phrase). “ I can’t believe life is so complex / when I just wanna sit here and watch you undress.” - Goddamn bars.

Similar to Dry, but didn't like this one quite as much. I really enjoyed the songs with purpose. What does mean mean? The songs where it didn't feel like she's lost on some sort of melancholy and takes us on a journey that slogs to nowhere. Those songs don't hit with me. And I'm still stuck on the Patti Smith vibe she has, which is great and one of the reasons i like PJ so much, but I want to give her the credit she deserves for being her own artist. But damn if she isn't a 90s version of Patti, which I say as the highest of compliments.

Meh

This is one of my truest 5 stars. What a work from PJ

Interesting. A challenging listen. I'm more interested by the overall sound (guitars and band arrangements) than the vocal melodies. Not sure yet about the lyrics. I'll need to listen more to get a full handle on this. It's at least Good, 7/10.

I've listened to two other PJ Harvey albums and despite not knowing much about her, I ended up enjoying those two. I don't think I recognize any of these tracks by title, so I'm kind of going in blind. But based on previous experiences, I'm looking forward to this listen. I'm still not sure why I never checked out PJ Harvey previously, because I quite enjoy this. It's another PJ Harvey album I'll be adding to my list of albums to listen to again.

This might be a 5 star for me. Wasn’t the biggest fan of her other stuff, but the vibe of this one is great. And the thom Yorke features are awesome

She's so cool, but these songs are charmless. the exception is We'll Float but that sticks out like a sore thumb.

I'd rather listen to Ani or Liz Phair but very much enjoy PJ Harvey.

Aangenaam om naar te luisteren!

Dit was leuk!!

Love pj, love the album. 89/100

It's fine but forgettable

Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea is good if a bit on the slow side. Love the maximalist, spacious production, the guitars sound great, and the best songs ("The Whores Hustle and The Hustlers Whore" and "Kamikaze") sound a lot like Prime Patti Smith. Liked it quite a bit and looking forward to her other albums.

4/10 - way overrated, could just be one song plus another with Thom Yorke

New one for me, and I'm still not really sure what I think of it. For the most part, I enjoyed the vocals, but there's a quality to them that still slightly puts me off. Not really sure what it is. The backing also gave me mixed feelings; I liked the somewhat heavy sound, but the riffs were really uninteresting to me. The mix is pretty generic indie and although there's a bit of variation in the sound, there's not really any variation in instrumentation so it all pretty much just blurs. A lot of the tracks are really just quite dirge-y. I don't hate the sound, but I don't think I'd want to listen to a lot of it. The album was getting quite stale for me by the end. I did enjoy Thom's vocals where they featured, and the Radiohead connection makes sense because the styles are somewhat similar. Didn't hate it, but also didn't find it all that special.

I'm a sucker for powerful vocals. This reminds me of sonic youth's less dissonant songs like teenage riot. Her vocals reminds me of Kim Gordan's sorta spoken/shouted word style. Generally enjoyed everything in here and some songs were incredible so we bump up to a 4.

Conheci a PJ no dueto dela com Thom Yorke em This Is Mess We’re In. Ali já tinha uma impressão bem positiva dela. Não sei por quê, mas tinha uma visão de que ela seria uma Patti Smith da vida. Achei a capa bem na vibe do filme Mesmo Se Nada Der Certo: aquela coisa caótica e mundana da cidade.No início, fiquei intercalando com outras músicas, então não me apeguei logo de cara. Mas, na primeira vez que escutei o álbum sem nenhuma outra faixa misturada, confesso que me apaixonei. Gosto quando escuto algo novo e ele me faz lembrar de alguma coisa, sabe? Um filme, uma memória e, muitas vezes, um álbum ou uma banda.Quando ouvi Big Exit, parecia que tinha colocado por engano alguma faixa do Sonic Youth — mas com um caos diferente. Não era a barulheira (que eu amo) super intencional do Sonic, e sim o caos mundano das grandes cidades.

Just a super strong collection of songs. This is a super famous album I’ve never gotten around to, and I’m glad I finally did! It’s as good as people say it is. The strongest PJ Harvey album on this list (thus far), and there have been MANY PJ Harvey albums on this list already. Great lyrics, great production. A fantastic NYC album, really feels like the city in 2000. Listened to it like three times yesterday. Goes down real easy. No complaints! Loved it!

Didn’t like her singing voice that much and nothing special musically. Shoutout to the surprise Thom Yorke appearance though!

nice enough

Che atmosfera

Didn’t blow me away, but some decent tunes.

tykkäsin! mutta tykkäsin loppupuolesta enemmän, alku ei oikeen imassu. mutta tajusin että tykkäsin ehkä vaan thom yorkesta. unelmieni mies.

En oo oikein kuunnellu PJ Harveya mut tää kyl uppos! Hyvää kitaran kolinaa ja Thom Yorken featti yllätti positiivisesti. Biisitkin oikein hyviä, mut ehkä jäi vähän nelosesta itellä.

Tää oli hyvä! Kuuntelin kahdesti ja pidin. Ei muuta.

Kaunis, kuulas ja ajankohtaisen kuuloinen levy. Tykkäsin siitä, miten riisuttu tuotanto oli. Persoonallinen ääni ja Thom Yorke -fiitti vakuutti!

3.5

2.5

Jag lyssnade inte supernoga om jag ska vara ärlig, så ta min review med en nypa salt. Jag tyckte albumet var bra och det var inte riktigt vad jag väntade mig. Jag gillade det men det var inte helt otroligt. Min favorit var låten med thom yorke. Jag ger albumet 7,5/10!

För mig är PJ Harvey en artist som jag länge har varit medveten om att jag borde gilla. Hon har rekommenderats till mig flera gånger och passar perfekt in i den typ av musik jag brukar dras till, men av någon anledning har det inte blivit av. Stories from the city, Storues from the sea är ett kärleksbrev av PJ Harvey till NYC. Vid den första lyssning tyckte jag inte att albumet var fantastiskt. Det fanns absolut några guldklimpar!! I och med ryktet och dessa guldklimpar så valde jag att lyssna mer, och för varje lyssning så blev albumet bättre och bättre!! Låtar som ”This Is Love”, ”Good Fortune”, ”A Place Called Home” och ”This Mess We’re In” är helt otroliga. Albumet fångar kärleken till New York på ett fantastiskt sätt, och produktionen är fin fint!! Älskar att thom york är med på detta album och det drar upp albumet ett snäpp, jag älskar den mannen. Därför ger jag grabbensomintekollarpåexplosioner detta album en 9.3/10

I think this is the best of her albums on this list. The Thom Yorke duet is the best track.

Grunge/punk late 90s not bad

solid 8 album, with no really skippable songs, but I couldn't find a banger either

A perfectly fine and fun album! Some 4's with interesting rhythms and intstrumentation, some 2's on the more repetitive side. Not many standout lyrics or songs.

This one a little bit better than I expected... It sound pretty pretty nice and the one with Thom Yorke was quite a surprise honestly

Fantastic

Good vocals, good production, I only knew ‘This Is Love’ and was pleasantly surprised by the more moody tracks.

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!

Never listened. Expectations: High - Verdict: Very Good - I really enjoyed the previous PJ Harvey album on the list so I'm looking forward to this a lot. Big Exit is immediately brighter than that record which reflects the different vibe of the cover. Good Fortune continues in a similar vein and is another good track. A Place Called Home is good and Beautiful Feeling has Thom Yorke's fingerprints all over it. The grungy sound of the debut is gone but the songwriting here is very strong throughout and there is a brightness to the guitars that make it sound very immediate and modern. The Whores Hustle And The Hustlers Whore is a great example of this. This Is Love is a really good track with a great breakdown. I really enjoyed this one.

Ощущение что PJ Harvey наигралась с сомнительными концепциями, вокруг которых построено всё звучание Rid Of Me, в котором мне понравилась одна единственная песня, и в конце концов, записала альбомчик с нормальным таким альт-рокешником, где нет странного баса на переднем плане и вот этих дебильных, неубедительных театральных игр голосом. Кста, нравится обложка альбома, надо бы стырить для референса себе. КОРОЧЕ, прикольно! ничё так, приятно слушать, есть интересные идеи, да и голос, как оказалось, приятный и даже вещи в сотрудничестве с Томом Йориком вполне ок.

paar leuke nummers, geen slechte nummers

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

Love the voice against the guitars. Very strong sound.

3.5: kind of Jeff Buckley vibes. I really enjoyed it though nothing jumped off at me super strongly. Will definitely keep pj Harvey in mind going forward

twilight meets coldplay meets keane really liked this

This was quite underwhelming. I’ve always heard brilliant things about PJ Harvey’s music and recognised this album’s cover, but this isn’t what I was expecting. It’s definitely an enjoyable Alt Rock album, but there aren’t enough moments that really made me think that this was something special. ‘This Mess We’re In’ was the obvious highlight for me, especially Yorke’s vocals, but aside from that and the opener - ‘Big Exit’ - there wasn’t that much that interested me. I think I’ll give this album 4 stars on the 1001 Album Generator, but it’s definitely in the lower end.

Did not enjoy this

Pretty good average album on first listen only we float stood out to me

Another objectively not good album

Mom look, another 90’s act that spews Patti Smith vibes. I like this one. It definitely plays too safe and kinda stale at the start, but it picks up halfway. Thom Yorke shows up and it indeed begins to start slapping.

This is nice this is fun. So somber in some Places and radio head jumpscare. I don’t know if I understand Pj Harvey that well. It’s more a lyrics things I suppose I figure that is it. I really like this as an introductory listen to Pj Harvey I wanna revisit ride on me it seems to be the critically acclaimed one. These vocalists always hit it out of the park once and then coast Pj Harvey and Bjork are all over this list.

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

3.5

It's the only PJ Harvey I happen to have listened to before. And it's got some great tracks on it. Easy 4/5

It’s alright. Expected more from a Mercury Prize winner.

Fine!