What is God in ethly guise? One or mampus giant eyes?
July 8, 2023 5:32 PM Subscribe
PJ Harvey comes to each album more or less a different person, playing different instruments, pondering different subjects in her elliptical lyrics. If you thrilled to the strident, triumphant To Bring You My Love, you might not be prepared for the explosive joy of Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea. If you loved that one, you’d still have to make an adjustment for the politically barbed Let England Shake or the ghostly White Chalk. Harvey’s tenth album, I Inside the Old Year Dying, is much the same in that it is not the same as any of the artist’s previous work.
PJ Harvey's first album for seven years is based on her book length poem, Orlam, and follows soundtrack work for Apple TV's Bad Sisters (including a wonderful cover of Leonard Cohen's Who By Fire?, itself based on a Hebrew prayer).
Video for the track I Inside the Old I Dying, interviews with NPR and The Guardian.
PJ Harvey's first album for seven years is based on her book length poem, Orlam, and follows soundtrack work for Apple TV's Bad Sisters (including a wonderful cover of Leonard Cohen's Who By Fire?, itself based on a Hebrew prayer).
Video for the track I Inside the Old I Dying, interviews with NPR and The Guardian.
The Violent Desire of PJ Harvey's "Rid Of Me" - New British Canon
posted by Artw at 5:44 PM on July 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Artw at 5:44 PM on July 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
in ethly guise
I said, "Don't look, Ethly!"
But it was too late,
She'd done got mampused.
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:11 PM on July 8, 2023 [5 favorites]
I said, "Don't look, Ethly!"
But it was too late,
She'd done got mampused.
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:11 PM on July 8, 2023 [5 favorites]
Huh, I just walked out of a record store where this was playing and I found myself quite beguiled by the stick on the cover, get home and here we are.
posted by xurizaemon at 6:13 PM on July 8, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by xurizaemon at 6:13 PM on July 8, 2023 [2 favorites]
At this point I think she has no peer among her contemporaries from the 90s. The woman has never made an album that even approached mediocrity. Every album has a few of her best songs, you could argue that her best album came out in 2011, or 2000, or 1992, or was actually just a collection of perfect demos. She's the best.
posted by kensington314 at 12:29 AM on July 9, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by kensington314 at 12:29 AM on July 9, 2023 [4 favorites]
For some reason my brain conflates PJ Harvey and Liz Phair and sometimes this confuses me. This is one of those times
posted by away for regrooving at 12:47 AM on July 9, 2023
posted by away for regrooving at 12:47 AM on July 9, 2023
PJ Harvey jumped the shark some years ago, the years of collaboration with Seamus Murphy started with something quite good, Let England Shake, but fell straight off a cliff afterwards. Her poetry - Hollow of the Hand - was so naive and embarrassing, and combined with the pretentious photos accompanying it, AND combined with both of them taking it all SO SERIOUSLY left our local gang of PJ fans in no doubt that it had all gone wrong. One of the worst "gigs" I've ever sat through. Both skimmed the surface so superficially and yet expected so much unearned credibility and authority that it screamed out the small print, "past performance is not indicative of future results!"
No longer a fan of the art, or the artist
posted by bookbook at 1:27 AM on July 9, 2023
No longer a fan of the art, or the artist
posted by bookbook at 1:27 AM on July 9, 2023
There all is aching
posted by GoblinHoney at 8:26 AM on July 9, 2023
posted by GoblinHoney at 8:26 AM on July 9, 2023
Ten comments in and this thread is already a rollercoaster.
posted by mhoye at 9:57 AM on July 9, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by mhoye at 9:57 AM on July 9, 2023 [6 favorites]
FWIW the time I saw PJ Harvey (Shepahrds Bush, i think the tour for Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea?) was one of the best gigs I've ever been to.
Also I like the Seamus Murphy collaborations.
posted by Artw at 10:29 AM on July 9, 2023
Also I like the Seamus Murphy collaborations.
posted by Artw at 10:29 AM on July 9, 2023
The Powers interveiw talks a lot about what she is doing--and i do find a continuance--esp in the ideas of collapsing binary catgeories--nature/human creaiton, animal/human, gender, even adult/child.
I think it's also picking up from the english folk horror tradition, and the acknowlegment that this collapse is violent, and that it features destruction--the cyicle of creation is one which needs destruction, it's a scary idea in a lot of ways.
i also think that her careful noting of place, esp Dorset, and how language has been lost and regained is really vital--she's done her reading, done her considering, and it's fascianting me to consider her in a tradition of English and Scottish regional poets, who work in a similar crisis--including George MacKay Brown, who she qoutes.
posted by PinkMoose at 11:07 AM on July 9, 2023 [2 favorites]
I think it's also picking up from the english folk horror tradition, and the acknowlegment that this collapse is violent, and that it features destruction--the cyicle of creation is one which needs destruction, it's a scary idea in a lot of ways.
i also think that her careful noting of place, esp Dorset, and how language has been lost and regained is really vital--she's done her reading, done her considering, and it's fascianting me to consider her in a tradition of English and Scottish regional poets, who work in a similar crisis--including George MacKay Brown, who she qoutes.
posted by PinkMoose at 11:07 AM on July 9, 2023 [2 favorites]
FWIW the time I saw PJ Harvey (Shepahrds Bush, i think the tour for Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea?) was one of the best gigs I've ever been to.
I saw her when she was touring behind To Bring You My Love at a small club (where I got to stand maybe 15 feet from her). She put on a great show (TBYML is my favorite album of hers), but I'm to this day confused by the opening act, which was the opposite, the single worst band I've ever seen. I keep telling myself "she's a genius, there must be something redeeming about that opening band, if she had any say at all in who opens for her" but all these years later I can only conclude she didn't.
posted by maxwelton at 11:53 AM on July 9, 2023 [2 favorites]
I saw her when she was touring behind To Bring You My Love at a small club (where I got to stand maybe 15 feet from her). She put on a great show (TBYML is my favorite album of hers), but I'm to this day confused by the opening act, which was the opposite, the single worst band I've ever seen. I keep telling myself "she's a genius, there must be something redeeming about that opening band, if she had any say at all in who opens for her" but all these years later I can only conclude she didn't.
posted by maxwelton at 11:53 AM on July 9, 2023 [2 favorites]
Thank you, bookbook, for your comment. I make no apology for being totally in the tank for Polly Jean, so it was bracing to hear someone cast doubt on my abject worship. You made me listen to the new one closely and ...
... I'm 4 songs in and I'm pleased to report that if you're looking for a PJ Harvey album, this is what you're looking for.
posted by whuppy at 4:56 PM on July 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
... I'm 4 songs in and I'm pleased to report that if you're looking for a PJ Harvey album, this is what you're looking for.
posted by whuppy at 4:56 PM on July 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
*sigh*
Fair enough whuppy, I'll go and listen, nothing to lose, after all, I did also listen to the Wet Leg album for the first time in a year or two and it cannot be worse than that... (I liked the singles but live they were pretty dull and ran out of steam very quickly, not to mention variation in their songs, so awaiting a few more albums)
posted by bookbook at 4:27 PM on July 12, 2023
Fair enough whuppy, I'll go and listen, nothing to lose, after all, I did also listen to the Wet Leg album for the first time in a year or two and it cannot be worse than that... (I liked the singles but live they were pretty dull and ran out of steam very quickly, not to mention variation in their songs, so awaiting a few more albums)
posted by bookbook at 4:27 PM on July 12, 2023
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posted by phooky at 5:43 PM on July 8, 2023 [1 favorite]