| PJ Harvey She was an alarmingly brilliant singer to begin with. And now that Polly Harvey has unstrapped the heavy guitar from around her neck and taken a few voice lessons, she's really going places, reaching new heights, hitting lows, with an expanded vocal range and broadened artistic vision to match. To Bring You My Love, her latest, is an ambitious move away from the whiplash guitar parts that have dominated her past work in favo of a more conceptual approach towards art-blues. Take the hip-hop drums, shimmering guitar figure and treated vocals of the album's most haunting cut, "Working For The Man." "C'Mon Billy" is built on just acoustic guitar and strings but is nonetheless a vigorous groover. Throughout, Harvey's voice is a marvel of emotion, nuance and power (especially when she lets the beast free on "Long Snake Moan"). British technoid Tricky uses drum loops, synth washes, samples-everything from Isaac Hayes to Smashing Pumpkins-and miscellaneous noise to build what's best described as "ambient rap." His potty mouth ("I'll fuck you up the ass just for a laugh") and chewy rhymes alternate with the eminently listenable singing of partner Martina. --Tim Casebeer |
