| Product: |
Dry - PJ Harvey |
| Date: |
03/10/02 (186 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Intense, Honest, Emotional
Disadvantages: One or two weaker songs
How to describe Polly Jean Harvey? A female Nick Cave? Bjork with guitars? You could compare her to Patti Smith, but she's less self-consciously literary; her music is more raw and immediate. Tom Waits shares her no-frills production values but his roots are in mellow west-coast rock: Polly's west coast would be Minehead or Weston super Mare. Sinead O'Connor has similar emotional honesty but her debut, equally stunning in its way, was lush by comparison. Face it, she's pretty well unique.
Her three-piece eponymous band produces a growling, bass-heavy swamp rock, if such a thing is possible when you hail from Yeovil. The playing on this album is reminiscent of Boston three-piece Morphine. It sounds - as the album's title suggests - dry: little echo; close-miked. The melodic relief from guitar/bass/drums setup comes only from Harvey's plaintive voice - the violin and cello on the record are harsh and abrasive. Yes, it?s an uncompromising listen. Polly is her own woman. She won't take any crap. But if you're prepared to listen, she?ll bare her soul.
It's 10 years since this debut CD appeared, and if you've heard only PJ Harvey's latest incarnation, Dry will come as a shock. Recorded on a shoestring, it is stripped-back stuff. Nevertheless, a genuine and original talent shines through.
'Oh My Lover', 'Dress' and 'Sheela-na-Gig' are the standout tracks: the bare-bones instrumentation throws Harvey's voice into stark relief. But the intensity and melody of her singing carry these songs. 'Oh My Lover' is no declaration of devotion, more an expression of disillusionment that her man has done her wrong. "Must be a way I can dress to please him/It's hard to walk in a dress, it's not easy" sings Polly in 'Dress'. But this isn't an airhead out on the pull; she's saying something about the ridiculous things we're forced into by gender
roles. The track rattles along: a compulsive chorus propelled by scratchy violin.
A Sheela-na-Gig is an ancient stone carving, of a grotesque female figure, often showing her genitals. Celtic porn, or fertility symbol? Who knows? In Harvey's song Sheela is scorned by her lover, calling her an 'exhibitionist'; her breasts are 'dirty pillows'. "Gonna wash that man right outta my hair/gonna take my hips to a man who cares" is her derisive response.
In 'Hair' the tables are turned and it's the woman who has the power in the Samson and Delilah story. 'Plants and Rags' puts jagged cello and violin over acoustic guitar to disturbing sepulchural effect. It provides welcome respite from the electric tracks: a kind of gothic version of Roxy Music's 'In Every Dream Home a Heartache'.
Other tracks - for example 'Joe' and 'O Stella' - can pale against the more compelling tracks, but the overall intensity never flags.
Harvey's no man-hating feminist. She may be confused by reactions to her femininity and what it entails, but she wants to find a man who cares, one who?s not scared of her power.
Why buy this album? Get it if you like heavy rock - with female honesty instead of male posturing; if you want songs that sound as if they've been ripped, still bleeding from the singer's chest; if you?re sick of airbrushed manufactured pop and want to feel as if you've been slapped in the face by a chunk of raw emotion.
Track Listing:
Oh My Lover / O Stella / Dress / Victory / Happy and Bleeding / Sheela-na-Gig / Hair / Joe / Plants and Rags / Fountain / Water
Price: Amazon do it for £11.99
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lamorna - 20/10/02 I love reading reviews about PJ as she lives in my town in West Dorset and even though I've known her and her parents for years I still get a shock when I see her shopping in Somerfields!
Lam orna in a 'what a one-off lady she is' kinda way :) |
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