Dry

Angry guitars, jazzy drums, negative space and a voice that effortlessly shifts from a claustrophobic whisper to a feral howl. Fuzz-free counterpoint to grunge

I just do not like PJ Harvey. No reason, can't explain, but none of her songs sound good to me.

horrible. never again.

Back to back PJ Harvey is nice to help showcase the variety of moods and sounds one can get on these albums. Calling the album Dry and the accompanying cover image actually implies raw, which would be fitting.

I’m surprised I’d never listened to this. I owned maybe two or three PJ Harvey albums, but I barely played them after a while. For my money, this is her best straightforward rock album. It’s angsty, full of seething vocals, angry guitars and experimental structures, with a raw, homemade feel that makes it as intriguing as it is odd. Apparently, she had no idea whether she’d ever make another album at the time, so she gave it her all, and it really shows. There’s not much else to say, other than that it’s a solid album that still sounds unique today. 4 stars.

consistent - pj delivers

I preferred her 2nd album.

I usually enjoy PJ Harvey but less taken by this album

Felt it was lack an extra bit of oomph

*an ok album

victory é uma grande música. talvez eu tenha gostado mais desse do que o anterior que saiu dela, esse som mais cru soou melhor com a voz dela.

The pieces of Dry are really good, but put together, they just don't quite amount to anything. And it's really difficult to describe why. You could argue that the album doesn't do much that other better albums don't do, and while that's partially true, there's interesting stuff here. There are a lot of dynamics and some off-kilter tempos, like the Spiderland guitars on "Happy and Bleeding." But while these guitars and the lyrics are fierce and urgent, the songs are not. The songs just kind of lumber along, doing interesting things but not in a compelling or satisfying way. It's almost frustrating how just OK this album ends up being when Harvey puts on a great performance vocally, but the lack of songs that grab you or surprise you really lets it down.

I was less convinced by this offering than the previous ones without necessarily anything being worse here...

Punk like. It’s ok

Raw, unfiltered, and straight to the point. No time wasted at all. Killer record.

Pretty solid debut

Raw and ready. Tis a powerful trio (quartet?) that serve the songs well. Simplicity is in charge here and it works very well.

Never heard PJ Harvey’s debut before. Really glad I heard it now. The punk is much more forward than in her later work. I’m definitely a fan. 4 Boolean: True

Couldn't even make it through one song, and I can't even blame my obvious ADHD for that one. I'd rather listen to the English national anthem if I wanted such a dreary, funeral march sounding way to spend 40 odd minutes of my life.

Grungy and enjoyable

Never been a big fan and I’m not sure this is even her best album

A banshee-style sound; punkish and angry but also interesting

ギターとかベースなどの楽器がヴォーカルの感情に合わせて、変化しているように感じました。 静かに歌ってる時は、他の楽器もそれに合わせてゆったりと演奏していて激しくなるところは一緒に激しくなるみたいな感じで、一体感が生まれてた。 でもよく考えると、それが普通か。 その変化の中にもファーストならではの荒々しさのようなものがあり、僕は Stories from the… より好きかなと思います。こっちの方がスッと入ってくるような感覚。僕は割と洗練されている音楽が好きですが、この人の声はこういう荒々しさを残した系統の方が向いてるんじゃないか、そう思います。

It doesn't move me. She never has.

debut de altíssimo nível eu não gosto tanto das coisas que a pj harvey fez depois mas esse é doidera

mulheres com RAIVA, graças a deus. apesar de ser uma raiva mais contida, né. no mais, é ROCK pra carai, bem puxado prum blues às vezes. um debut bem sólido. achei bem bacana!

My favorite type of female early 90s rage

cannot believe i’ve never heard of this woman before. this was incredible

Somehow I hadn't really heard PJ Harvey back in the day, but I got to correct that today. Solid album from the grunge era. I'm interested to hear more now!

Whenever I’ve liked a band or an artist that has a lot of catalogue, there always seems to be one or two albums I either dismiss for no particular reason for ages or listen to very little, despite there not really being anything wrong with them. PJ Harvey is one of those artists too. I’ve listened to her music for about 20 years by now and own most of her albums, but for reasons I cannot explain, I’ve never listened to this (nor White Chalk) before today. This, despite knowing I’d like this album too. I don’t know why it happens, I really don’t. Anyway, this was, as I expected, really good and probably one of her few albums that actually sound somewhat similar to some other of her albums – in this case Rid of Me, which I dearly love. In short, great, dirty rock it is. I need to listen to this more, now that I finally got it out of the not-listening prison.

Pleasant enough listening, not really sure I had any expectations going into this one but liked it at least a fair bit. Not sure I’d be going back to any of the songs massively quickly as it’s just not really my type of music but would be happy enough listening to the album if it came on.

I rank this one somewhere between Stories from Cities and Rid Of Me. PJ Harvey seems to be relatively under the radar, at least where I'm from. I appreciate her contribution to this genre , this was a worthwhile listen.

Another of my favourite PJ Harvey albums, but it’s not quite on the same level as Rid of Me or To Bring You My Love. Still pretty great though.

Tyttöenergiaa!

Early PJ Harvey is some of the best guitar- based music there is. For a debut, it's absolutely fantastic, and Dress and Sheela-na-gig are two of her best songs to this day. With that said, I think her following albums are even better, and this style is perfected on Rid Of Me, so this gets a 4, purely because I think that album should be here instead.

Review posted 21/10/26 aaand we are caught up. I don't think my time away would have massively changed the opinions on this album, like it did some of the others though. If I had heard this in 2024 I would've loved it, however. This album is pretty raw and grungey, and I'm not sure why but the presentation gives me a real energy of Bush, the grunge band, and Bjork. Both of said artists didn't realise their debuts until after this one however, so on some level that comparison is absolutely praise. The downside of that is, as I said, I was a big fan of Bush in 2024, before re-diving properly back into grunge and quickly phasing out Bush for more intensive things. That's why, as far as this album goes, I think it's a solid listen and an otherwise good time but it doesn't dedicate itself enough to a really winner. Purely just a view of my tastes changing and reshaping, but in 1992 we also got Core by STP and it had been a year since Ten by Pearl Jam. I think, even as far as alternative rock goes, this album is drowned out by the immense amount of amazing work being produced around it. I do like the edge this album has though, it's very raw in presentation and production and that sounds good and I think for other people that could do a lot but as of right now on this listen it's just not what I'd want from 90s alt rock with a grunge twang. I just wish it leaned into the genre more. Best song(s): Sheela-na-gig Worst Song(s): N/A Rank compared to everything else so far: 65/77 (below Among the Living above Better Living Through Chemistry)

Never listened to PJ Harvey before, pretty good tho! 3.5/4

I don't think I've heard this PJ album before. I liked it. 4/5

Really loved this actually.

2.5

Turns out I dislike whatever PJ Harvey album I got first on this list more than I dislike PJ Harvey as an artist. This one was much better. I like the almost Grunge kind of undertone that the whole record has. There were some songs that were definitely lacking energy where it should have more that I wasn't too big of a fan of, but this one had a lot of great songs on it. I was especially a big fan of the opening few songs. It was also pretty neat to learn what a Sheela-Na-Gig is. I haven't seen a representation of a woman look that goofy since the Venus Statue that everyone posts on Reddit twice per day.

As advertised. Despite how hard this sucked, it still left me bone dry.

Like the last album from PJ this missed again for me. It just feels forced, and unnatural.

This is simply a good album. The whole record just had the problem of good ideas but underwhelming execution. Either riffs were repeated too many times or the pacing was just a little off, but it was still a pleasant listen. The bass on some tracks was awesome, as well as some of the guitar arrangements. Not essential by any means, but still a nice listen. PJ loves to add some odd signatures too which is always appreciated in my household as well as a cool use of polyrhythms on the track 'Dress'. Great production as well. High 3.

I dislike PJ Harvey but this album is an exception. I didn’t love it, but it was solid listening.

Yay☺️

What an incredible debut. When I first heard Sheela-Na-Gig back in the day, I was smitten with PJ Harvey.

Generally fine, but I feel like it was lacking something. If I knew what, I would probably be a musician.

Good riffs and intense lyrics. It's a strong outing from PJ Harvey and contains some memorable tracks. My favorite of the bunch is probably Sheela-na-Gig. I like some later PJ Harvey work a bit more, but this first album is definitely good.

dry like sweet candied apricots

Didn't do much for me, the girlfriend liked it though.

It was a decent album, but it didn't blow me away.

I've tried PJ before and had no success. This time, I really enjoyed it. Only a few tracks stuck out but overall it was a good record. 4/5

I'm a sucker for a female vocalist - be it solo, duo or in a band. Not sure if PJ Harvey is just a solo artist or a band and the music wasn't good enough to make me want to find out. I like it just fine, but it seemed like an album that I could hear passing by a garage band of 16 year olds who had been playing together for a year and writing their own songs. Didn't mind it, but no reason to come back to this one. 3 stars

Singer songwriter in a 90s alt rock mould. Less angsty than Alanis Morisette.

This is an interesting one to be honest. My opinion on this album shifted not even from song to song, but even during the songs. The sound goes from something I like to something I find mildly annoying very quickly. I have to give it a 3.4/5. It's more than a 3, but it's not a 4 (which would be albums that I definitely want to remember to listen to again, soon.).

Favourite Songs: Dress Victory Sheela-na-gig

This is a great album - I'm starting to realise I've slept on PJ Harvey too long. This is grungy in all the ways I love, but also very bluesy with some really nice slide guitar in places. There are also nice sprinklings of cello and double bass here and there. Great lyrics with a feminist lean as well, something that's kind of lacking around here! I definitely need to go and listen to her other albums.

Meh song arrangements. Wish her vocals were mixed better. Not something I am likely to revisit. The only track I genuinely enjoyed was "Plants and Rags", for the song arrangement, but thought it could have been mixed better. Too much PJ Harvey on this list. You cannot convince me that she deserves 4 spaces on this list. 1, maybe 2 at most. 4 is just British bias. Free up 2 of those slots for other Lilith Fair artists that did meaningful work in the 1990s.

Liked this better than Let England Shake, which I rounded up to 4, so this one is a solid 4.

8/10 Superb - positive of this activity has been my reassessment of PJ Harvey.

Some good rock instrumentals throughout however, moody dramatic woman singing in an annoying voice is not my genre. Still not as bad as bjork tho

Solid instrumentals however another album where the singing ruins it for me in my opinion.

Not my jam

Muy corto. Igual me encanta ella

I like this more than rid of me but probably not as much as let England shake. Started off a little slow but won me over

Does there really need to be this many PJ Harvey albums on this project?

I had never heard of this artist, and I gotta say I liked it. Sounds like Brit-pixies, which i guess is more enjoyable than britpop.

There is no cooler person than PJ and I doubt there will ever be.

raw, angry, guitar heavy, from the 90s. All good things to me.

This has a unique sound to it. It mixes some alt and grunge and... well, it's a lot of things. At times, it sounds almost derivative of what was "going on" at the time (early 90's... grunge and alt-rock) and at other times, it sound very unique. Her lyrics are interesting and have a certain... I dunno, "message" or "feminism" to them but are just obscure enough to not be preachy. I read that she felt she had "one shot" at making a record and wanted to make it count. If she really did, this gave her more shots, so it did that job well. It's a good enough record and I enjoyed it just fine.

While this is the album I knew PJ could make, it’s still not enough.

Truth in advertising.

"Im sorry that's never happened to me before". A sentence Polly Jean Harvey will never have heard from a man, unless from a guitarist for flubbing a note. Despite this, I am quite sure I would be a gibbering wreck if I ever found myself standing in front of this women, even now, 30 years after she first made a huge impression on my adolescent, hormone-driven brain. I knew Sheela-na-gig and Dress already but not really familiar with the rest of it, but it's fantastic and incredibly self-assured for a debut. I think she probably topped it with To Bring You My Love but in its -puzzling- absence from the list this is refreshing enough to earn a 5.

Girl power

Dit album heeft momenten dat ik het echt tering vet vind. Alleen lijkt het erop dat PJ af en toe d'r creatieve, alternatieve geest iets teveel wil laten grazen. Niet denigrerend bedoeld, maar als ze gewoon liedjes maakt is ze op haar best wat mij betreft. Een lekker gitaartje erbij, een prima stem. Dan hoef je het van mij verder allemaal niet te gek te maken. Die tweede track doet bijvoorbeeld een beetje denken aan Guano Apes. Ik vind dit een heel prima album van onze PJ. Na 2x een 3 voor tante PJ ga ik een keer een 4 geven.

some of it blended but I did like it. Highlights: Dress (fav) Sheela na gig Victory Plants and Rags

A woman! Unfortunately not fully for me. Still good just a little abrasive for my taste

First listening to this album I couldn’t tell if I loved it or absolutely hated it. The more I listen the more it grew on me. The instrumentals are awesome - I love the use of cello in plants and rags. after finishing the album I think I really love it. Need to give it another listen I think. favorites: - Sheela-na-gig - Plants and Rags - Fountain

Awesome and angsty and finally some WOMEN IN THIS SHIT!!!

I love it. I usually listen to this type of musicccccc!!

OK

Liked it! Nothing breakout here but solid rock, PJ hits it. Twangy bass was interesting.

I think this is one of those albums where I like the albums it influenced more than I like the album itself. The raw angsty sound is cool, but the content doesn't hold up for me.

moody and crunchy. maybe a little one-note. i really enjoyed it. favorite song is Water. very strong 3

Rating: 7/10 Big fan of PJ Harvey. She's a fantastic non-typical alt rock songwriter, guitarist and also multi-instrumentalist who has a one of the best outputs of albums of any artist in the 90's, and some very good late career works as well. Her debut is cool, it shows what she's all about but it's also in my opinion her worst or at least one of, PJ at her least developed and just laying the groundwork. Her 90's albums are just even better versions of Dry, expanding and perfecting her sound. There's nothing bad here, it's still above average and promising. Oh My Lover and Sheela-Na-Gig are very cool songs

Sick as

Hadn’t realised the album finished and got about halfway through the second listen before I figured it out. Pretty samey, which isn’t a bad thing, but in this case I don’t particularly like the sound.

Det er ikke så dårligt at det ikke gør indtryk, men det er heller ikke så godt at jeg vil bruge mere tid på det. Det som det gør godt, gør det rigtig godt.

Tanken om at have lyst til at give mere er rar, men den er der sgu bare ikke for mig. Måske hvis jeg var i lidt dårligere humør. Desværre Pyjamas Harvey.

*64 Perfekt ligelig dosering af prætentiøst alt rock og faktisk god musik.

Hvis det er replay-value der gør en 3'er, så må jeg nedgradere på denne. Jeg var fristet, for jeg synes faktisk der var nogle ok numre undervejs. Dog har jeg svært ved at se mig selv gå og lytte til PJ Harvey herhjemme.

Rætti fedt album, good job 4.0

Jeg ville så gerne give hende flere stjerner, både fordi jeg synes hun er pisse dygtig (og sej) og for de kunstneriske ambitioner med albummet, men det her er bare ikke min favorit version af PJ Harvey

I’ll be completely honest here. I don’t know what to rate this one exactly. Initially, I let out a bit of a confused sigh when I saw that this was my album for today. Weird album cover, indie rock is always a bit of a mixed bag, and I don’t even remotely have a clue who PJ Harvey is. Like, I’ve never heard of her in my entire life. So it was a bit stacked against her already in my mind. Then I saw that she somehow has 4 albums on here. That being said, naturally, this is my first of 4 PJ Harvey albums I will be reviewing for this project. And as always when I initially doubt something based on just looks alone, I am so very, very wrong. Now, I still don’t know who PJ Harvey is at the end of the day. I haven’t done a deep dive on her yet. I’ve got 4 albums to do so, so I’ll save that for another review just so I have something else to talk about. For now I’m fine not knowing anything about her. What I do know is that the general consensus of her 4 albums on here is not great. For what it’s worth, Dry, her debut album, is the second highest rated of the 4 albums on the site. And my personal opinion?? Wow. Refreshingly different. I love a good female artist who just unapologetically kicks ass, and I think PJ Harvey might just kick a whole bunch of ass. This is one of those albums that clearly isn’t perfect, and you really kind of get the point even after the very first song is finished. It’s a little samey and formulaic through and through. She’s got a BADASS grungy voice, and based on the Spotify Credits, she’s also playing the freaking guitar as well?? OK, seriously, why have I never heard of her, this is right up my alley. It’s like a female Nirvana. What the hell, I actually love this. Picking a favorite song too is also difficult, and that’s unfortunately because all of these songs sound the damn same to me. Noted, it’s the same really good song, but they’re very similar. On memory alone, I think the song that stands out the most, besides the killer opening track “Oh My Lover”, which instantly had me going “Oh” myself, has to be “Sheela-Na-Gig”. That song was the perfect bland of catchy singing and killer, shredding guitar solos. Dude. Actually, I love this album. Didn’t see that one coming based on the rating, but I’ll never complain about being caught off guard by any of these albums and artists that I’ve never heard of before. It’s been quite a few days since I added anything to my regular Liked Songs playlist, but this album is getting a few inclusions added to the list. And for that, as well as everything else I already mentioned, I’m going to give this one a 4.3ish out of 5. It’s really freaking good. Love the singing, the grungy, angry guitar, and everything else is just right up my alley. Both interested and a little nervous to hear what she sounds like later in her career with her 3 other albums on the list. For now though, first impressions are quite good!!

she doesn't miss does she

No private session used for Spotify. I have always liked what I heard from PJ Harvey and I have listened to an entire album, just not this one. This one rocks, seems raw yet polished. Early 90's there were are lot of angsty men making music, it's nice to hear from the feminine side.

I'll not be sad if this album comes on.

PJ Harvey – Dry (1992) On Day 268, this was an impressively dark and fearless record, and that uncompromising tone likely explains why it was titled Dry. Releasing an album this raw and unvarnished as a debut was truly biting the bullet, but the creative risk paid off completely. It made for a compelling, cohesive, and surprisingly focused listen. "Sheela-Na-Gig" was a standout cut, showcasing exceptional dynamic tension and lyrical bite. Aside from "Hair," which didn't quite land for me, the rest of the tracklist held together with genuine grit and artistic conviction. A brave, memorable debut. A strong 4/5.

But moany.