Wednesday, August 01, 2007

PJ Harvey - Stories From the City Stories From the Sea


PJ Harvey hails from a beautiful farming town in Dorset, England. She moved to NYC for about 6 months to aid her in recording the album Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea. What might be her best effort yet, was released in October of 2000. Rekindling with this Cd, seven years down the road, I still find a treasure trove of rare gems.

She has collaborated with the likes of many talented musicians such as Nick Cave, Marianne Faithfull, Josh Homme, Mark Lanegan, Thom Yorke to name a few. On this album she wrote and produced it with longtime fellow friends Rob Ellis and Mick Harvey (no relation).

Begins with 'Big Exit' which sounds off with a Big Bang! She proclaims, "this world's crazy, give me the gun." Pretty is she with a pistol in her hand.

Next up is 'Good Fortune' which was released as a single in the UK. Here she throws her "bad fortune off of a tall building"- and towards the end of the song she ends up "like some modern-day Gypsy Landslide, like some modern-day Bonnie & Clyde, on the run again."

A trilogy follows with the eloquent and darkish ' A Place Called Home' then segues into 'One Line' with Thom Yorke on backing vocals and keyboards, then arrives the acoustic ' Beautiful Feeling' with Thom Yorke on vocals, very sweet indeed.

'The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore' slams down with a harder edge and PJ's depiction of NYC is right on the mark.

The stellar duet with Thom Yorke is ' This Mess We're In' - their vocal harmonies just ebb and flow on a slow wave of pure sin. Delightful to say the least. 'You Said Something' trails on after and she never elucidates what that something is, very befitting for PJH.
Her air of mystery hangs overhead like a dark cloud bank. Racing in is 'Kamikaze' with her maniacal vocal delivery and a crazy and twisted backdrop, probably my least favorite song on the Cd.

'This is Love' seems to pay homage to her "dirty little secret". ' Horses In My Dreams' is one of her more enigmatic and melodic tunes. I float on a calm blue sea of dreams when I hear this song. An acoustic beauty hands down! Last up is ' We Float' and by the end of this voyage she has learned to just "take Life as it comes" and why not? Her voice just radiates here.

Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea is a remarkable body of work encompassing a rollercoaster ride of raw and intense emotions reminding you to hold on tight as you take this ride in Life.

Jodie-Next Listener

2 comments:

cbro said...

Thanks Jodie

I have never understood why this cd isn't bigger then it was. Ignore anyone that puts this cd down. It's a classic. This is why I wanted to do a "Lost Treasures" section at nextmusiconline.com. Anyone else got one?

Well done Jodie

Megs said...

I spent the first month of this summer listening to that album over and over again. It's so good.