#405: Rid Of Me- PJ Harvey

Listened to: MP3

I believe in my last review I made it abundantly clear what admiration and adoration I have for Ms. Polly Jean Harvey. Rid Of Me is her second album, which was recorded by Steve Albini, who is responsible for the sound of such albums as The Pixies’ Surfer Rosa and Nirvana‘s In Utero. The album starts off with the title track, and is an example of the habit PJ has that I’m not so much a fan of, which is keeping that fantastically jarring, emotive voice hidden behind all the other instruments. Thankfully, the track picks up volume, if only for moments, on the midpoint of the song, on the “Don’t you don’t you wish you never never met her?”s. Lyrically, the song is dark, violent, erotic, just like PJ Harvey songs should be. What it’s about, beyond bondage and leg licking, well, I leave that up to interpretation. But god damn if it isn’t a great start. The second track, “Missed”, keeps the ethereal feel of the first track, and of the music that would come on To Bring You My Love, and PJ’s voice is easier to hear, thankfully, so you can more appreciate that lilting agony she carries in each lyric. Lines like “Show yourself to me/And I'd believe/I'd moan and I'd weep/Fall silent at your speak/I'd burst in/Full to the brim” are so serenely, painfully beautiful that you need only read them and feel the emotion wash over you. Matched with Harvey’s vocals, and you have a tremendous musical moment.

“Legs” has a bizarre guitar track and Harvey taking on an odd vocal tone, yet it all works in this thinly heavy track that, well, I really don’t know the meaning of. But listen to those wails. The power in this woman’s voice is astounding. “Rub It ‘Til It Bleeds” is lyrically, by far, one of Harvey’s creepiest songs. “I lie steady/Rest your head on me/I'll smooth it nicely/Rub it better 'till it bleeds” is song so sensually as to almost be sexy, were one not paying attention to the words being sung. The song switches from that smoky feel into heavy guitars and pounding drums, and if for nothing else but the sheer musical dynamics of this track, it’s worth a listen.
“Hook” moves into the story-telling type songs you find a lot on To Bring You My Love, this time the story of a woman in love, abandoned by her lover, an reduced to nothing. The medieval, tragic feel of the lyrics is contrasted by the buried vocals, the industrial feel of the production, and the sound of what seems like a trash can being pounded. Harvey is like the anti-Jim Morrison, in the sense that she composes fantastic lyrical poetry, but hides them in instrumentation and melody, rather than try to bring them to the forefront as Morrison often did. “Man-Size Sextet” is inexplicably sexy in it’s lyrical imagery musical composition, and is one of the best tracks on the album, without a doubt. I could describe it further, but I’d rather leave it vague and encourage you to seek it out yourself.

The next two tracks are the best on the album, without a doubt. Harvey’s interpretation of “Highway ‘61 Revisited” by Bob Dylan is refreshingly and blessedly unique, shattering the mold of Dylan covers being, well, anything like the original. Even if you don’t enjoy what she did with the song, you have to admire the originality. “50ft Queenie” is the first Harvey track I’ve ever heard (played on WFUV junior year, if I remember correctly) and so began my fascination with Miss Polly Jean. This is probably the most commercially accessible song from this album, which is why they released it as a single. This track fits in the Jane‘s Addiction, RHCP world of the 90’s music industry, but the song is made unique by Harvey’s voice, and her typically perplexing, violently sexual lyrics. For anyone looking to dip their toe into the water of PJ Harvey, this is a great track to start with.

The album continues with “Yuri-G”, “Dry”, “Me-Jane”, “Snake”, and “Ecstasy”, but if I haven’t convinced you to listen to this album yet, praising four more tracks won’t help (plus, I’m trying to give as good a review as possible while saving time to catch up on all of these reviews that are well over-due).

So, in conclusion, Rid Of Me is another great album by PJ Harvey that I recommend, however, I would choose To Bring You My Love or Stores From The City, Stories From The Sea over it. Just saying. It deserves a place on this list, and for those interested, I would say it’s worth a listen, but listen to just “50ft Queenie”, then the other two albums, first. Come to this later. You’ll appreciate it much more then.

-Mike

See you next for #69: Superfly by Curtis Mayfield.

#435: To Bring You My Love- PJ Harvey

Listened to: MP3

It 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.