PJ HARVEY
To Bring You My Love
Island

The caustic, monochromatic scrape of RID OF ME and the forbidding FOUR-TRACK DEMOS suggested hat PJ Harvey's sound was heading for a dead end. Actually, she was just clearing the table for the next course. With her third "real" album, Polly Jean has recruited an entirely new supporting cast and made the proverbial quantum leap into greatness. She's still unmistakably herself--maudlin, melodic, abrasive and confrontational--but the means she uses to reach those ends have become much more varied. Over her omnipresent soaring voice and serrated guitar, the album's wild production sends instruments swooping into the mix at unexpected angles, and almost sounds like a mid-'60s "stereophonic" album (play with the balance knob a bit and you'll hear what i mean.) Likewise, there are many stylistic changes as well; tactfully arranged keyboards, a string section on "C'mon Billy," and, at scattered moments, even (probably unintentional) glimpses of the Blues Explosion and Portishead. Yet the expanded sonic palette is only half the story, because Harvey has grown immensely as a songwriter; "Meet Ze Monsta" and "Working For The Man" take her swamp-groove fetish to mew heights, and the aching "The Dancer" may be the best song she's released yet. A mature but totally uncompromising album, TO BRING YOU MY LOVE launches PJ Harvey into an entirely new phase of her career, and will doubtless be rated as one of the best albums of this year, as well.

--Jem Aswad