In 47.3 short minutes, I went from having no idea who PJ Harvey was, to not having any idea who PJ Harvey was, but kind of really liking some of her music. Helping me along that journey was her 2000 release, Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea.
The album hits its best chunk, starting with "One Line," before moving onto the haunting, and appropriately titled "Beautiful Feeling." The low backing instruments combined with the near-chanting vocals create an intriguing, ominous listening experience.
At this point we move onto my favourite track, "The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore," which takes the album and, according to my notes, "kicks it up, like, seven notches!" Its faster pace has fervour and energy without compromising the musical density of the rest of the album.
And that takes us to "The Mess We're In," featuring Thom Yorke of Radiohead fame. Listening to this song made me question whether or not it's possible for Yorke to not sound incredible. The song does hit a weird part near the end, where Harvey is speaking lyrics which Yorke then sings. I assume that this is done to create a multi-layered experience of the lyrics, but instead, it sounds like Yorke has forgotten the words, so Harvey has to rush to feed them to him. Even with this brief dip, it's still a great song, and easily the second best on the album.
Overall, Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea was, in my limited opinion, a great introduction to PJ Harvey's work, and I'm looking forward to hearing more.
Rating: 3.5 stars
Tomorrow: Buster Keaton's The General
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