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
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