PJ Harvey
To Bring You My Love
from mtv.com

Singing about love and redemption, PJ Harvey underscores the songs on her new album with warm, churchy organ chords and guitars that strum softly or rock big and noisy. She delivers her message with a smoothcry, a delighted yelp, a deep growl, a low whisper.

"TO BRING YOU MY LOVE," Harvey's fourth release, presents a distilled sound overall, contrasting 1993's gleefully raucous "RID OF ME" with uncomplicated song structures and minimal musical elaboration. Hammond organ lays the foundation for every track, with Harvey carefully adding a guitar, some percussion and, on three tracks, a string quartet. This approach works brilliantly, evoking the depth of the blues and the roughness of raw rock & roll.

Since her debut release, 1992's "DRY," Harvey's music has transcended gender and obvious musical type. Her songs address sex and passion, love and hate, ecstasy and ire, shredding feminine notions in the process. On 1993's "RID OF ME," Harvey's bold imagery portrayed an oversexed, larger-than-life "50 Ft. Queenie," worked a male point of view in "Man-Size" and presented herself as a dangerously possessive lover in"Rid Of Me," eschewing girlyness by screaming or speak-singing her lyrics and playing her bruising guitars loud and fast.

On this album, Harvey's lyrics examine familiar territory--gender conflicts, loss of innocence, a lover's suffering, salvation. But this time the icons, like the music, are stripped-down, relying more on simple allegory and linear tales. On the title track, over an organ and walking bass line accompaniment, she sings about heaven and death, hell and high water, declaiming, "I was born in the desert/I've been down for years/Jesus come closer/I think my time is near...I've lain with the devil/ Cursed God above/Forsaken heaven/To bring you my love." Harvey increases the drama as the song slowly unfolds, roughing up her voice, drawing out the words, turning emotion to theater. "Meet Za Monsta" is similarly oversized, but it's also good, hard rock & roll, rendered simply with buzzing rhythm guitars, stinging lead lines and tambourine.

Inspirationally, the blues seem to be at the core of this album. Settling in with the legends, she conjures the strength of Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters in the humorous bravado of "Meet Za Monsta" and the restraint of "Working for the Man." "Working..." stirs deep emotion with an insistent bass riff, shaky percussion and a reedy organ moan that frames layers of conspiratorial talk-singing vocals. Modern-day descendants of the blues are present, too. The full-out barrage of "Long Snake Moan" jolts the record at the halfway point, coming more from Patti Smith, and the mystical vibe of "The Dancer" gives a nod to Zeppelin. In mining the masters and interpreting the interpreters, Harvey presents a strong, personal take on the blues and rock & roll, carving out her own new territory.

--Suzanne McElfresh

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