Entertainment Weekly 2-10-98 PJ Harvey Is This Desire? Polly Harvey views love as both a life force and a black hole; those who cling to it like an article of faith are doomed to get burned, living out their lives in some kind of joyless purgatory. Sure, Harvey’s a romantic nihilist, but she’s also a brilliant formalist, and this may be her most musically daring and fully realised effort. Conjuring chilly, post-industrial soundscapes that sound like assembly workers toiling in hell, her voice floating over everything like a spooked seductress, Desire seethes with hypnotic power. Marc Weingarten |
