Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea

Fucking cool but not really my thing

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.

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.

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!

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'm afraid my review will be slightly prejudiced - I really wasn't in the mood for this kind of music today, and it certainly tainted my perception. Overall, I found this a bit too tame for my taste. I keep reading how dark and abrasive PJ Harvey is, but frankly, I just don't hear it. Maybe I should try her early works first ? It's certainly not a bad album, don't get me wrong. It just feels kind of stuck in a certain 90s indie / low-fi / post-grunge vibe that feels out of place for a 2000 album, and now sounds somewhat a bit formulaic. No song really stood out or struck me, leaving me quite underwhelmed. But I'm sure I'm being unfair. PJ Harvey is an artist I missed entirely in the 90s for some reason, but would probably have liked a lot if I first discovered her in 1993. And this album is clearly head and shoulders above the last one I got (Let England Shake) - it's certainly more visceral, and it slowly grew on me as I listened. A good 3* for now, but I probably need to give it another spin when I'm more in the mood. 6/10

Хороший альбом с отдельными запоминающимися композициями, среди которых особенно выделяются «Horses in My Dreams», «Beautiful Feeling», «The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore» и «We Float». Однако в целом пластинка не создаёт устойчивого эмоционального впечатления. Несмотря на давнее знакомство, возвращаться к ней возникает желание нечасто. Возможно, другие работы PJ Harvey оказываются для тебя более близкими.

Verry grungy yet sounding like an new yorker version of Björk. Mot de cœur sans censure, cru et vrai. Musique mélancolique d’une baddie qui marche un soir d’automne.

2 av 5, dette syns jeg var litt tynt a gitt.

This one is 6 stars!! I love her so much, this record has always been really important to me. I saw her when she was touring this record and it was pretty revolutionary for me. The energy she has here is so powerful. Couldn't love it more

Listened

Good without being great. Couple of tracks lifted it to a borderline 3.

This album took some perseverance to get through. At first I thought there were some early parallels with the angst of Alanis Morissette but ended up just all a bit shouty…

Having listened to the debut and this album now a few times because of this project I can safely say I have a deep appreciation for PJ Harvey. And I think this may be her best album. I thought because of this it would be a 5. But it just… isn’t. Many songs are. But then I am constantly aware that she falls into the female artist trap of singing endlessly about love, lovers, and relationships. The songs that are more global, that are more ambiguous allow the real power of her music to come through imo. So this stays a 4 album for me, as much as I long to bump it up. 4 Boolean: True

She's a genius of downbeat, radical, droning rock music.

Pretty good rock/pop stuff from PJ.

After listening to 400 albums, including what feels like 100 by relatively unknown British singer-songwriters, I’m always skeptical at first when I see this combination. In this case, that skepticism is unwarranted - and PJ Harvey is certainly no hidden gem. “Stories...” features relatively enjoyable and mature material, even if the big hits are missing. I find the production a bit jarring, as it largely forgoes a substantial bass line - in addition to volume, it particularly lacks solid arrangements - and a professional could certainly have gotten more out of it. All in all, still a decent recording.

I am starting to think that despite the general vibe, music, lyrics, everything being just like a few degrees off from shit I fucking love, that PJ Harvey is just not my thing

Always a favourite

crazy to think this was probably the first album lots of people bought / listened to this century. I enjoyed, loved Thom Yorke's vocals, it was just a little forgettable. very nice vibe, awesome album cover

I like the album's style, but it is not my style. I love the cover art.

day 30 of not rolling Aja by Steely Dan writing this bit before i listen: God I hope it's good, because this is the album we rolled on my birthday! eh it's alright. keeping with the increasingly farcical joke, it's funny to me that a British woman went to New York once and wrote an album about how much better it (and Paris, I guess, but fuck that city tbh) is than Dorset, which i am treating as emblematic of England as a whole. you're right pj. might as well move to new york. i have never been to dorset but i am sure it is a shit hole. cool to also get some thom yorke features. although on that note i wish PJ would have not done anything at all in "This Mess We're In" because her voice gets in the way of the one i care about

Had a few bright spots! Just forgettable overall

PJ Harvey has never done it for me. This was interesting but not overwhelmingly so. I felt like a lot of it sounded like a very cheap copy of an early Coldplay album.

😍😍😍🥰🥰🥰💕❤️💕❤️

Good listen just didn’t fully click with me (yet?)

This was interesting. I likes this quite a bit but I couldn’t fully get my fingers on what about. Sometimes i really didn't care for her vocals that much. But it did have some great tracks and lyrics. A love letter to new york and heartbreak is very compelling; but not what I’m interested in now.

Never became familiar with PJ Harvey and I think this is all the experience I need after this record. Not terrible music, just sounds like the rest of late 90s alt rock. Not really digging the vocals or music, it's okay. I won't be revisiting this one.

Generic, liked the first song though

A completely commanding album that I was very intrigued by- a very cool Nick Cave/Patti Smith sound (including many references to horses?...) I'm a fan, but I couldn't always get into it- a low 4

PJ personally believes that comparing her sound and style to Patti Smith is just lazy journalism. However, this album is undeniably in the style of Patti.

A great album from PJ.

Very cool actually. 3.5

I have this album on CD so I already knew I liked it, but for whatever reason it really hit the spot this morning. In my brain, PJ Harvey occupies a similar space as Patti Smith with this album, in that the music exerts such an aura of “cool” that I’m immediately entranced. I also like her more abrasive sound on albums like Rid of Me or To Bring You My Love, but the polish on these tracks doesn’t take away from their intensity.

A fantastic album from an amazing artist.

picture a place thats far from danger, a quiet town that drowns in proper bliss they dont know whats gonna happen, to what pours from the fountains of our lips when we leave we will become the others, until we steal the parts that weve forgotten from other towns our names wont remember, the names that pour from our lips when we call for each other in the middle of the night and beg for forgiveness that it took us this long to find us

It has definitely a good vibe. I know one track from this album, but generally I didn't listen too much her in past. From this period I listened Tori Amos insteand. The featuring with the Tome Yorke is the best part of this album!

앨범 커버는 느낌 있었는데 곡은 전체적으로 평범한 느낌이었다. The album cover had a certain vibe, but the songs overall felt rather ordinary.

Slow start. Actually picks up after “beautiful feeling”. I liked its slow grungy vibe. “Whores” is alright too- with epic soaring vocals. Surprised to find Thom Yorke from Radiohead in the single “The mess were in” here for a big duet complete with imagery of the city. I don’t love the corny melodica in some of the songs. There is some good heavy sounding overdriven bass in most of the songs. She is a solid vocalist with a good band behind her. I was ready to give it a 2, but i did enjoy my time with this album. I enjoyed the sentiment in “we float, take life as it comes” the album ends pretty peacefully. Considering the paranoia and solemnness at the beginning. 3.

Mostly boring. Sometimes annoying.

Nógu áhugaverð til að fá þrjár.

mid

Quite the jump going from just having listened to "Dry" to now this. Well, both records have a lot of similarities in terms of sound, but this one feels considerably more polished and mellow compared to her rawer and grunge inspired debut. Whereas I really like "Dry" for its energy, what I find more appealing in this one are the softer moments. The more upbeat rock alternative cuts are still great, "Big Exit" is a good opener with a lot of character, "The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore" is another solid moment, "Kamikaze" has a super busy and frantic drumming accompanied by some powerful guitar playing, and "This Is Love" is super catchy and memorable. However, the slower moments are truly the most emotional parts of the album. Songs like "A Place Called Home", "One Line", "Horses In My Dreams" and "We Float" (where P.J. Harvey's singing becomes subtler), feel incredibly personal, intimate, serene, beautiful, heartfelt and captivating. But is not only the voice that brings all the sentimental value, even though it carries the vast majority of it. The kind of atmospheric and the little wonderful melodies of the slowed down instrumentation help elevate the performances of the main artist. Besides, there is no way I'm not mentioning the Thom Yorke beautiful contributions with his voice in the background in "One Line" and "Beautiful Feeling", and of course the fantastic duet of the two singers in "This Mess We're In". In general, I think the album is really solid. Quite weird that I like way more the slow parts than the ones with more energy, but they are way more emotive in this case.

Rate: 10/10. PJ Harvey I wasn't familiar with your game.

Didn’t expect to hear Thom Yorke on this

It got better and better the further I got into the album. She has an amazing voice Favorite tracks: Horses In My Dreams We Float

One of my least favorite artists on this list so far, although this one is better than the England album

2000 -- 5th album and 2nd commercial success -- alt rock -- vocal reminiscent of Chrissie Hynde; "The album featured a duet with Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke on the track "This Mess We're In", as well as backing vocals and keyboards from Yorke on the songs 'One Line' and 'Beautiful Feeling'; "I wanted everything to sound as beautiful as possible. Having experimented with some dreadful sounds on Is This Desire? and To Bring You My Love—where I was really looking for dark, unsettling, nauseous-making sounds—Stories from the City... was the reaction. I thought, No, I want absolute beauty. I want this album to sing and fly and be full of reverb and lush layers of melody. I want it to be my beautiful, sumptuous, lovely piece of work."; "a magnificent, life-affirming opus" - shrug emoji - maybe with more listens i could get there but the first listen didn't inspire a desire to listen more.

Thom Yorkeが出てきてびっくりした。そんだけ？かな その曲は割と良かった。女の人の声が力強い感じで、それも良かった。確かに都会的なポップかな

This is a strong 3. There are a lot of promising sounds, but it never feels like the album reaches its full potential. The harmony between PJ Harvey and Thom Yorke works really well. PJ does really well capturing a raw rock vibe on a few of the tracks, which I would say are the highlights of this record. The album suffers the most on tracks where the chorus is just one lyric repeated over somewhat uninteresting instrumentals.

Queenie

😧 more, of this shit!?

Liked this a lot more than Let England Shake. Kind of Bjork-y! I liked pretty much every track except for The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore, which is too bad because what a kickass name.

Didn’t know she was a rocker!

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*

So great to find new songs for my liked playlist, and so many from just one album! If Steely Dan’s Aja is a Jon album, then this is certainly a Madeleine album. And you love to see some surprise Thom Yorke! I can certainly see how this inspired other artists I love (Mitski took some major notes). There’s just something about crunchy guitar, stream of consciousness lyrics, and angry girl singing that gets me.

So moody. So edgy. It’s perfect for when you’re standing in line at Starbucks and it’s raining outside. Then you realize they forgot to add caramel to your iced venti triple shot caramel macchiato

I guess I like Polly Jean Harvey... First Dry, now this. But this blew Dry out of the park and I really liked Dry. Perfect album. 5/5

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.

beautiful feeling makes me want to rip all of my hair out. 10/10 no notes.

Such a good album. Thank you for reminding me how much I love. PJ Harvey

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 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