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Favourite PJ Harvey album?


View Poll Results: What is your favourite PJ Harvey Album
Dry 2 10.00%
Rid of Me 1 5.00%
4-track demos 0 0%
To Bring You My Love 4 20.00%
Is This Desire? 1 5.00%
Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea 6 30.00%
Uh Huh Her 2 10.00%
White Chalk 2 10.00%
A Woman A Man Walked By 0 0%
Let England Shake 2 10.00%
Voters: 20. You can't vote on this poll right now - are you signed in?

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Old 02-01-2014, 17:53
constantino_chr
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PJ Harvey is without a doubt one of the greatest artists of our time, she is a true visionary.

All of her albums are so different, people love them/dislike them for different reasons depending on the taste of that individual.

Which is your favourite album of hers?

Dry
Rid of Me
4-Track Demos
To Bring You My Love
Dance Hall At Louise Point
Is This Desire?
Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
Uh Huh Her
White Chalk
A Woman A Man Walked By
Let England Shake
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Old 02-01-2014, 18:07
embryo
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I think I'd go for 'To Bring You My Love', one of the best albums of the 90s in my opinion. As far as I'm concerned though, there isn't a single bad album in her discography.

Also, if you're including 'A Woman a Man Walked By' in your list, you might want to add the first album with John Parish too, 'Dance Hall at Louse Point' .
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Old 02-01-2014, 18:15
constantino_chr
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I think I'd go for 'To Bring You My Love', one of the best albums of the 90s in my opinion. As far as I'm concerned though, there isn't a single bad album in her discography.

Also, if you're including 'A Woman a Man Walked By' in your list, you might want to add the first album with John Parish too, 'Dance Hall at Louse Point' .
Good Point! Thanks!
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Old 02-01-2014, 18:39
JeannieMac
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I voted for White Chalk - to me it's the most hauntingly resonant album she's done.
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Old 02-01-2014, 18:49
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I voted SFTCSFTS because it feels like the emotionally
moving of her albums, but "Let England Shake" is also
superb.
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Old 02-01-2014, 19:54
Gigi4
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PJ would probably disagree with this but for me her best is Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea. I like the more pop accessible conventional rock sound of it. I know she's into experimenting but I don't think accessible with melody equals bad or selling out. It actually takes a lot of talent to create something like that. I know they're very critically acclaimed but I really can't get into either White Chalk or Let England Shake. I would like to see her do another blues/punk/rock based album instead of her more recent avant garde experiments.
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Old 02-01-2014, 21:30
FrankBT
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PJH maybe one of the greatest British female artists of the last generation...but greatest artist of our time? As far as females go she's not in the same league as someone like Joni Mitchell. Or if you include both genders she's never written anything near the level of someone like Stevie Wonder in his heyday...he didn't always write commercially either.

I only discovered PJH in recent years, and as much as I like most of her work, three problems remain. Although she always changes her style from album to album, she's never really progressed much musically, still mainly sticking with simple 3 chord songs, whereas the truly great songwriters look outside that box. Just to take a striking example of George Harrison's glorious song Something. The use of effective chord progression there is nothing short of brilliant. Pj has occasionally stepped outside the 3 chord box eg 'Plants And Rags', but not nearly often enough.

The other thing is that although she's usually very good live, her vocals sometimes go adrift and when it happens it's grating. At her level she shouldn't be making howlers like this (first line). There are other similar examples if less glaring.

The third problem ties up with the first in that she's never progressed as a guitar player still playing at a very basic level, although good enough for her purposes. But it would be nice if she learnt a few jazz chords and it might take her songwriting much further.

Having said all that, Stories...stands out musically for me, despite PJ hating it. She's totally wrong about it. Two or three of her songs on it are amongst her best. I also liked the album Is This Desire with its more experimental approach, although that one took much longer to digest.
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Old 02-01-2014, 22:56
warszawa
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Uh Huh Her is the one i visit the most.
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Old 03-01-2014, 17:56
Stephenmarra
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For me, the journey started with Dry so it gets the nod from me.
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Old 03-01-2014, 22:47
Zeb Atlas
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Wow - great to see a thread about PJ here. Pleasant surprise! I went for Is this Desire - it is a very sombre, atmospheric album which is also subtle and beautiful too. Some tracks like My Beautiful Leah, Joy and Electric Light are almost too difficult to listen to - as they bring up the dark side in such a vivid and striking manner without going into gothic stereotypes. I love the fact she always keeps her songs tight - never repeating choruses for the sake of it.

I do love all her albums - apart from Dry which I've never got into (just screams early 90s indie rock) and I think White Chalk does go into pastiche of herself at times with the angst (although many would disagree). However, if I had to pick a favourite track of hers 'The Devil' from White Chalk would probably be my favourite.
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Old 03-01-2014, 23:00
unique
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to bring you my love is my favourite

also, i saw her live and she sat on the monitor in front of me and i swear she had no underwear on. you wouldn't sit like that with no panties on unless you were trying to show off
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Old 03-01-2014, 23:14
my name is joe
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PJH maybe one of the greatest British female artists of the last generation...but greatest artist of our time? As far as females go she's not in the same league as someone like Joni Mitchell. Or if you include both genders she's never written anything near the level of someone like Stevie Wonder in his heyday...he didn't always write commercially either.

I only discovered PJH in recent years, and as much as I like most of her work, three problems remain. Although she always changes her style from album to album, she's never really progressed much musically, still mainly sticking with simple 3 chord songs, whereas the truly great songwriters look outside that box. Just to take a striking example of George Harrison's glorious song Something. The use of effective chord progression there is nothing short of brilliant. Pj has occasionally stepped outside the 3 chord box eg 'Plants And Rags', but not nearly often enough.

The other thing is that although she's usually very good live, her vocals sometimes go adrift and when it happens it's grating. At her level she shouldn't be making howlers like this (first line). There are other similar examples if less glaring.

The third problem ties up with the first in that she's never progressed as a guitar player still playing at a very basic level, although good enough for her purposes. But it would be nice if she learnt a few jazz chords and it might take her songwriting much further.

Having said all that, Stories...stands out musically for me, despite PJ hating it. She's totally wrong about it. Two or three of her songs on it are amongst her best. I also liked the album Is This Desire with its more experimental approach, although that one took much longer to digest.
i agree with your three reservations.
Her vocals have particularly gone awry on the last couple of albums as her songwriting has matured, but the biggest deficit in her music is the lack of music
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Old 04-01-2014, 01:00
barbeler
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Rid of me. Hard as nails with a bone crushing production by Syeve Alobini.
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Old 04-01-2014, 13:15
Smudged
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i agree with your three reservations.
Her vocals have particularly gone awry on the last couple of albums as her songwriting has matured, but the biggest deficit in her music is the lack of music
I disagree with that. All of the acclaim and awards for 'Let England Shake' shows that keeping things relatively simple can be very effective and her vocals are fine still. I would say the rawness and distinctiveness of her voice and sound are the very things that appeal to most people about her. I think you're confusing you not liking the albums with there being something wrong.
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Old 04-01-2014, 13:21
warszawa
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I love Let England Shake but i saw her perform it live and i was nearly nodding off.
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Old 04-01-2014, 13:24
my name is joe
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I disagree with that. All of the acclaim and awards for 'Let England Shake' shows that keeping things relatively simple can be very effective and her vocals are fine still. I would say the rawness and distinctiveness of her voice and sound are the very things that appeal to most people about her. I think you're confusing you not liking the albums with there being something wrong.
or you're confusing liking them with there not being

as it goes i like LES a lot, but i find it lacking in some areas as i do all her albums
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Old 04-01-2014, 17:10
Smudged
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or you're confusing liking them with there not being
Not really because I'm going by the general consensus rather than solely your or my opinion. Somehow I doubt it would have been so well received if things had 'gone awry'.
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Old 04-01-2014, 19:30
barbeler
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Rid of me. Hard as nails with a bone crushing production by Syeve Alobini.
The alter ego of Steve Albini... obviously
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