Requesting PJ Harvey recommendations... [Archive] - Audio & Video Forums

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jasn
01-17-2005, 09:08 AM
I don't have anything by her, and she keeps popping up on stations I stream at work as a real standout. Too many choices to choose from. Can anybody provide a good starting point?

Thx

BillB
01-17-2005, 09:17 AM
"Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea" is excellent.

Davey
01-17-2005, 09:46 AM
The album that probably caught me most off guard in the modern age is the first PJ Harvey album, Dry. I remember reading some very positive comments about it back when it came out sometime in '92 I guess, and picked it up shortly after. And was completely underwhelmed. Probably didn't even listen to it twice before sticking it on the shelf and promptly forgetting about it. So fast forward about a year or so and I'm reading more rave reviews about her new album and thinking to myself, what gives? Did I miss something? So I dig out my barely played copy of Dry and put it on and get completely blown away by how good it is. And I play it over and over and try to figure out what was wrong with me a year ago. And I run out and buy the new one, Rid of Me, and find myself listening incessantly to it as well, trying to decide which one I like best. And I can't. But that was many years and many albums ago and I still love her, but that first album is my favorite and probably always will be, no matter what she does. And what a great live sound it has too, with tons of unrestricted dynamics. One of the quietest CDs of the modern era, but still has the peaks set to max. Guess they weren't sophisticated enough on the first one to know that you're supposed to use tons of compression on modern rock music. It really sounds almost like an Albini engineering job, kind of like the highly dynamic albums he did with bands like The Wedding Present and Slint around that same time. Someday they'll remaster it and add tons of compression to get the volume up there like they did on Pavement's recent Slanted and Enchanted remaster that is also a very quiet and dynamic recording in its original release form, but it'll lose a lot of magic. I have the vinyl and it's the same way, mastered way low. Albini did work on her second album and brought in a lot of the Nirvana dirty guitar sound he was becoming known for, but also brought the compressors so it has a more constricted sound. After that the sound of the albums got worse and worse with the addition of compression and distortion, and she moved off in different directions stylistically, but they are all still very good.

I haven't heard the latest one other than streaming some of it when it came out and seeing her perform a couple of the songs, but love the work she has done in recent times with others, such as with Mark Lanegan on this year's excellent Bubblegum, one of my top albums of the year. She also starred on the last Sparklehorse album and has done some work with the Giant Sand and Queens of the Stone Age guys too. And wrote some songs and provided inspiration for Marianne Faithful on her latest release. And .....

Dusty Chalk
01-17-2005, 10:45 PM
Kind of hard to follow up one of Davey's posts, so I won't.

jasn
01-18-2005, 06:30 AM
Thanks, now I'm off to Django's....

Davey
01-18-2005, 07:37 AM
Kind of hard to follow up one of Davey's posts, so I won't.
Is it just the sheer word count that puts you off, or is it the brilliance within all those words? Hehehe, guess I do turn into a rambler sometimes, huh? I should probably borrow tentoze's Threadkiller user title :)


Thanks, now I'm off to Django's....
I should probably have said more about the music and less about my personal experience, but that debut (and the next one to a lesser extent) is a pretty hard rocker with lots of bluesy energy and raw emotion, so if that's not what you've been hearing and liking from her, you may not enjoy it. She did move into different syles and the one Bill mentions does have a combination of both the pretty side and the seamy side, and it is the best for many people. Me, well I love that raw charm of the debut, and it does have some quieter moments too. Just none of the smooth trip hop sound that she uses in some of the songs on Stories. Bt like I said, I really love them all so it's hard to guess what you may like best. Should be able to find some good deals though.

BTW, that's PJ in todays avatar :)

Dusty Chalk
01-18-2005, 10:26 AM
Is it just the sheer word count that puts you off, or is it the brilliance within all those words? Oh, it's definitely the quality, not the quantity. You remember her individual albums much better than I do. Do you remember that discussion? I think it was one of the first instances where it became clear to everyone (including myself) that I really do like too much stuff.