White Chalk - PJ Harvey

I have just bought this album from PJ Harvey, having only owned her most famous album "Tales from the City, Tales from the Sea" in the past. This new album is definitely a real departure from PJ's more well known sound. She is known for her gutsy, raw, often almost punk-influenced sound, but White Chalk is something completely different. Many of the tracks on the album are sung in an ethereal falsetto, quite a quavering and piercing sound. It certainly isn't what you'd call "nice" but for me that's a really good thing. It is a very unusual and though-provoking album, that is actually quite unsettling to listen to. Some of the ...

~~~Introduction~~~ White Chalk is the 8th album from PJ Harvey, released last year. Since her stunning and critically acclaimed debut, Dry, 14 years ago, she has continued to change, develop and challenge, morphing in her personal style as well as her musical style to keep things fresh, interesting and to keep us guessing. I know all this, and yet I still approached her latest album with something nearing trepidation, for gone is the guitar, so much a part of her sound, gone is the rocky attitude, abandoned for an instrument she had never played before - the piano. Surely this was doomed to be a worthy experiment, a little embarrassing perhaps, but ...