Listened to: MP3It is my sincerest opinion that PJ Harvey might be one of the most underrated artists of all time, and To Bring You My Love is probably her best next to Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea, an album heinously ignored by this list. The opening track, the darkly haunting “To Bring You My Love” show her for the pretty, gritty poet she is. The water motif throughout the album, and displayed in the cover, begins here, as does the multiple references to religion. It’s grim, growling sound is matched by the next track, but also blown away by it’s heavier, hard tone. “Meet ze Monsta” manages to be even more evil sounding than the last, with distorted instruments that would make the White Stripes jealous, and a work-song beat that makes any listener bang their head. In the lyrics, note the references to monsoons, for the water motif, and the line “Hell ain’t half full, take me with you” just because I love it. “Working For The Man” is an almost whispered track, with PJ accompanied primarily and almost solely by the bass. She does some amazing little vocal affectations and inflections during this track that make it so haunting and sensual. No water references in these lyrics, but she is speaking to God, in an ethereal indictment of ignorance and obsession with machinery, in my opinion.
From the last three tracks, we change over to a totally raw, loud, emotional, acoustic song, one of my favorites on the album, entitled “C’Mon Billy”, which is told from the perspective of a woman trying to plead with the man who got her pregnant to return to her. You can almost hear her sobbing in the lyrics, half-seducing, half-begging. Then the orchestra comes in, you truly discover the compositional range of Ms. Harvey, who by this point, if just for this track alone, earns the comparisons she gets to Bob Dylan, and for me to say that means a lot. “Teclo” changes the tone yet again, with Harvey switching from girlish agony to gutteral groans of suffering. On this track, every note she sings, every crack and wail is spine-chillingly present, thanks to the minimalist accompaniment for the first half of the song. By the end, this grim song gets more inturments, including the haunting bells that seem to complete that aura of misty fear. “Long Snake Moan” marks the return of the water motif, with darkly sexual…is it undertones? I mean, I want to say undertones, but they’re pretty much out in the open. Whatever, it’s sexy as shit. “Die of/Pleasure/Hear my/Dreaming/You’ll be/Drowning” are just some of the gorgeous lyrics to this hard rock track, that proves Harvey can get as heavy as hell itself. Seriously, this is a really hot track. Maybe just for me, but that’s irrelevant. It’s terrific whether you find it sexy or not. If I need to point out the water motif to you in “Down by the Water”, you need to get sterilized. This bleak track, reminiscent of old folk songs, but given a modern vibe, Harvey spins a song as a woman who has drowned her daughter.
“Oh, help me, Jesus, come through the storm/I had to lose her, to do her harm/I heard her holler, I heard her moan/My lovely daughter, I took her home/Little fish, big fish, swimming in the water/Come back here, man, gimme my daughter”
Those words could have been written 60, 70 years ago by an old folk mistress, but instead it’s young Harvey who shows her songwriting chops at their peak with this one. And to have this song follow up the wild, heavy, frenetic “Long Snake Moan” is just ingenious. Of course, to add to the eeriness of this album, she follows a song about drowning a daughter with a song entitled “I Think I’m A Mother”. Now, I’ll tell you the truth, I love the lyrics to this song, just like I love some of Dylan’s lyrics, not because of what they mean, but because I don’t have a fucking clue what they mean. Musically, the song is as dark as any other, but the pounding drum that courses through adds an aura of terror to the already disturbing musical world of PJ Harvey. The covered, muted vocals are also genius, and reminiscent of another singer-songwriter who I’ve yet to reference in this review as I’ve done it too much in the past, but let’s just say we’ve already reviewed all three albums he has on this list.
The plea to “Send His Love To Me” was expressed in earlier tracks, such as the title track, but this rebels against the water motif, by continually discussing dryness, and returns to the mention of Jesus. “Send His Love To Me” thematically seems a parallel to “To Bring You My Love”. Even the titles suggest two different but comparable things, giving and receiving. The musical style of both tracks are also polar opposites. While the first, “To Bring You My Love” is bleak and soft, this track is alive and bright. Even Harvey’s Patti Smith-esque wails can’t hide the energy in that tambourine and acoustic guitar. This track is truly one of the highlights of the album, especially with how well it fits into the themes and plays off of the other tracks. The album closes on “The Dancer”, which finally lets you in on the secret, if you choose to accept it: The album is a story, the entire album being a woman’s journey, first trying to bring her love to someone, and through the torturous pains of life, is reduced to begging for Jesus to “Send His Love To Me”. The opening lines of “The Dancer” wrap up this story:
“He came riding fast like a phoenix out of fire flames/He came dressed in black with a cross bearing my name/He came bathed in light and the splendor and glory/I can't believe what the lord has finally sent me”
The water motif returns in “My love will stay till the river bed run dry”, and do you get it now? The references to water change to drought as her hope dies out. Yeah, he true sign of a masterpiece, all the pieces, individually great, come together perfectly.
To Bring You My Love is the type of album one should aspire to make. It’s craftsmanship is flawless, it’s compositions and performances incredible, and it all works as a cohesive piece of music. Harvey on this album created not just a phenomenal collection of songs, but a remarkable simplistic symphony. I cannot reach out of the computer screen and force you to listen to this, but know that I would if I could.
-Mike
See you guys tomorrow for #105: Rocket To Russia by The Ramones.
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