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Is This Desire?
: From the opening silence of "Angelene" to breathlessness of "Is this Desire?" PJ Harvey's new release whispers with passion and a muted rage. With this haunting release PJ has created a lovelorn cousin to Nick Cave's The Boatman's Call. It is a unique addition to Harvey's oeuvre. Harvey's songs are populated by those on the margins, mostly women, who've either been cast aside or have somehow reached their end. Not as apocalyptic as Tom Waits' Bone Machine, it conveys a similar sense of unfulfilled yearning as the Waits classic. "A Perfect Day Else" contains one of the most unforgettable descriptions of religious eroticism: "God is the sweat running down his back/The water soaked her blonde hair black." A stunning effort.
From the roaring distortion of "My Beautiful Leah" to the whispering of "The Wind" to the spare beauty of "Is This Desire?", I don't think this album hits a bad patch. A serious contender for my Album of the Year. Favourite track: "A Perfect Day Elise".
Anyone who has stuck with Polly Jean Harvey through the years has gotten used to her ever changing sound. "Dry" is surely one of the best debut albums in history, as "Rid of Me" is easily one of the angriest follow ups. Then, surprise, she ditches her band, puts on a red dress and croons her way through the ambient blues of "To Bring You My Love". This she followed with a mish mash collaboration record with John Parish, "Dance Hall at Louse Point", which gave up the melodies (he wrote the music, she wrote the words) for experimentation. But now she's back on her own, and the result combines the styles of "Love" with "Dance Hall" to create her most personal album ever. The highlight here is the first song, "Angelene", a sweeping tour de force about a prostitute who longs for something better. She's just one of the many characters Harvey envokes... Like all great blues artists, Harvey knows that you reveal the personal best through other's eyes, and this she does with finesse. We hear the whispered story of Catherine in "The Wind" only to hear Catherine's lover pining for her in "Catherine" but two songs later. So is this a rock opera? Hardly; it is an investigation into the psyche, into what makes up our lives and how we wish there were more. On the final title track, Harvey finds no answer for her characters, just wonders if the emotion she's feeling is real... Then backs away from it. Again, like any good blues artist, she offers only questions, and leaves the solution to the listener. Unlike most blues performers, though, the music is hardly traditional. Some tracks have an ambience ("The Wind"), others a torrential, experimental attack similar to that "Dance Hall" album, but this time with purpose ("The Sky Lit Up", "No Girl So Sweet"). We hear the blues, we hear electronica, we even hear a bit of the old kick of Harvey's first two albums in the single "A Perfect Day Elise" (note that original drummer Rob Ellis is thankfully back on board). But most of all we hear a vulnerability the Harvey of "Rid of Me" didn't know. A vulnerability only maturity brings. Check this album out, but do so by yourself... On a rainy night, when you're wondering to yourself where desire might take you.
This album was my introduction to PJ Harvey, and an unforgettable one at that. I first heard the title track's bluesy chant playing in City Lights bookstore, San Francisco. I bought the album that afternoon, knowing not what to expect, just hoping it would cure my pessimism with regard to most modern pop music. To say the very least, my hope quickly turned to a thirst for more, as the incomparable single, "Angelene" simply blew me out of the world. The ringing chorus of "Katherine" stained my mind as it effortlessly rolled off of Harvey's tongue, "Til' the light shines on me/I damn to hell every second you breathe." I taught my ear to love the noise of "The Sky Lit Up" and the simpler beauty of tracks like "The River." Yes, "Is This Desire" is a more subdued affair than PJ Harvey usually delivers, it seems that she is asking her fans to tune their ears a bit differently to compliment this album's mature tone, trusting that they put some extra effort into an active listening of these songs. After gifts like "To Bring You My Love," don't we at least owe her that much?
It has been three years since Polly released a solo album. For those die-hard fans much was expected of this work, and I for one was not disapointed with what I feel may be her second best album (Rid Of Me cannot be measured on a five-star scale). Her lyrics are as profound as ever and her voice has more power than it ever has had. Although this album lacks the force-10 hurricane potency of Rid Of Me, her songs have more energy, true emotion and purity than any other artist in music today. Polly is truly a force of Nature.
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