PJ Harvey: 1992 - 2000

 

Polly Jean "PJ" Harvey MBE (born 9 October 1969 Bridport, Dorset, England) is an English musician and singer-songwriter. Harvey began her career in 1988 when she joined Bristol band Automatic

Dlamini as a vocalist, guitarist and saxophone player. Polly Jean "PJ" Harvey MBE (born 9 October 1969 Bridport, Dorset, England) is an English musician and singer-songwriter.
Harvey began her career in 1988 when she joined Bristol band Automatic Dlamini as a vocalist, guitarist and saxophone player. 
                

She is one Of the singer/songwriters who rose to prominence during the alternative rock explosion, few

are as distinctive or as widely praised as Polly Jean Harvey. Over the course of her career, Harvey established herself as one of the most individual and influential songwriters of her era, exploring themes of sex, religion, and political issues with unnerving honesty, dark humor, and theatrical flair. 
                 

In January 1991, Harvey  formed her own band with former bandmates Ellis and Oliver, though she had also formed lasting personal and professional relationships with other members, especially Parish, to

whom she has referred as her "musical soulmate". Parish would subsequently contribute to, and sometimes co-produce, Harvey's solo studio albums and has toured with her several times. Harvey decided to name her new band the PJ Harvey Trio, rejecting other names as "nothing felt right at all or just suggested the wrong type of sound", and also to allow her to continue music as a solo artist. The trio consisted of Harvey on vocals and guitar, Ellis on drums and backing vocals, and Oliver on bass. Oliver later departed to rejoin the still-active Automatic Dlamini. 
                 

At the outset, she delivered stark songs with bruisingly powerful abandon, as on 1993's Rid of Me. To make her third album, she wrote songs in the Yeovil home she bought with the royalties from her first

two albums and recorded with producer Flood, bassist Mick Harvey, guitarist Joe Gore, and former bandmate Parish. Harvey developed a richer, bluesier sound with the expanded band, and To Bring You My Love was hailed as a masterpiece by many critics upon its February 1995 release. Thanks to considerable press attention, as well as strong support from MTV and modern rock radio for the single "Down by the Water" (which reached number two on Billboard's Modern Rock chart), To Bring You My Love was a moderate hit. 
                        

It entered the Billboard 200 at number 40, and in the U.K. it debuted at number 12, ultimately earning silver certification. Harvey spent all of 1995 touring the album. The following year, she contributed

vocals to Nick Cave's Murder Ballads and collaborated with Parish on Dance Hall at Louse Point. Over time, Harvey's music became more nuanced and eclectic. Her 2001 album, Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea, featured a heady mix of trip-hop, guitar rock, and troubadourism, earning her the prestigious Mercury Prize. Harvey continually shifted gears, moving from the ghostly Victoriana of 2007's White Chalk to the moody social commentary of 2011's Let England Shake (an album that made her the only artist to win a second Mercury Prize). 
                

With the mysterious, folky realms of 2022's epic poem Orlam and 2023's companion album I Inside the Old Year Dying, Harvey's gift for creating immersive worlds remained unparalleled. Harvey possesses an expansive contralto vocal range. Harvey aims to not repeat herself in her music, which results in

every album sounding different to her previous works. In an October 2004 interview with Rolling Stone, she said: "when I'm working on a new record, the most important thing is to not repeat myself ... that's always my aim: to try and cover new ground and really to challenge myself. Because I'm in this for learning." While her musical style has been described as alternative rock, punk blues, art rock, avant-rock, and grunge, she has experimented with various other genres including electronica, indie rock and folk music.
                    

01.  PJ HARVEY - DRY 1992

                      

Her vocals are perfectly complemented by the trio's ferocious pounding, which makes even the slow

ballads sound like exercises in controlled fury. And that's the key to Dry: the songs, which are often surprisingly catchy -- "Dress" and "Sheela-Na-Gig" both have strong hooks -- are as muscular and forceful as the band's delivery, making the album a vibrant and fully realized debut.  
                   

P J Harvey – Dry
Label: Too Pure – PURE CDD010, Too Pure – PURE CDD10
Format: CD, Album, Limited Edition, Numbered, Stereo
Country: UK
Released: Mar 30, 1992
Genre: Rock
Style: Indie Rock, Alternative Rock

TRACKS

                       

01. Oh My Lover    4:02
02. O Stella    2:30
03. Dress   3:18
Bass – Ian Olliver
Double Bass – Ben Groenevelt
Producer – Mark Vernon 
04. Victory    3:15
05. Happy And Bleeding   4:50
Bass – Ian Olliver
Mixed By – Rob Ellis
Producer – Mark Vernon 
06. Sheela-Na-Gig    3:10
07. Hair    3:46
08. Joe   2:33
Written-By – P J Harvey, Rob Ellis
09. Plants And Rags   4:09
Cello – Chas Dickie
Guitar – Mike Paine
Written-By – P J Harvey, Rob Ellis
Written-By [Cello Parts] – Rob Ellis
10. Fountain    3:54
11. Water    4:35
12. Oh My Lover (Demo)    2:30
13. O Stella (Demo)    3:16
14. Dress (Demo)    3:16
15. Victory (Demo)    4:19
16. Happy And Bleeding (Demo)    4:44
17. Sheela-Na-Gig (Demo)    3:15
18. Hair (Demo)    3:37
19. Joe (Demo)    3:16
20. Plants And Rags (Demo)    3:33
21. Fountain (Demo)    3:05
22. Water (Demo)    4:32

LINE - UP

PJ HARVEY TRIO

                         

PJ Harvey – vocals, guitar, violin
Steve Vaughan – bass
Rob Ellis – drums, vocals, harmonium

ADDITIONAL MUSICIANS

Ian Olliver – bass (3, 5)
Ben Groenevelt – double bass (3)
Mike Paine – guitar (9)
Chas Dickie – cello (9)

NOTES

This cd seems to have been released in 2 versions.  It was supposed to be a limited, numbered edition of 1000 but more may have been pressed.

OH MY LOVER LYRICS

                         

Oh, my lover
Don't you know it's all right?
You can love her
And you can love me at the same time
Much to discover
I know you don't have the time but
Oh, my lover
Don't you know it's all right?

Oh, my sweet thing
Oh, my honey thighs
Give me your troubles
I'll keep them with mine
Take at your leisure
Take whatever you can find but
Oh, my sweet thing
Don't you know it's all right?

It's all right
It's all right
There's no time
So it's all right

What's that color
Forming around your eyes?
Waltz, my lover
Tell me that it's all right
Just another
Before you go, go away
Oh, my lover
Why don't you just say my name?
And it's all right
Say it's all right
There's no time

Oh
I, i, i, 'ime
La, i, i, 'ime

Flac Size: 468 MB 

02.  PJ HARVEY - RID OF ME 1993

                    

Dry was shockingly frank in its subject and sound, as PJ Harvey delivered post-feminist manifestos

with a punkish force. PJ Harvey's second album, Rid of Me, finds the trio, and Harvey in particular, pushing themselves to extremes. This is partially due to producer Steve Albini, who gives the album a bloodless, abrasive edge with his exacting production; each dynamic is pushed to the limit, leaving absolutely no subtleties in the music.
                 

PJ Harvey – Rid Of Me
Label: Island Records – CID 8002, Island Records – 514 696-2
Format: CD, Album
Country: Europe
Released: 1993
Genre: Rock
Style: Indie Rock, Alternative Rock

TRACKS

                      

01. Rid Of Me    4:28
02. Missed    4:25
03. Legs    3:40
04. Rub 'Til It Bleeds    5:03
05. Hook    3:56
06. Man-Size Sextet   2:16
Arranged By [Strings] – Robert Ellis
Conductor [Strings] – Brendan Ashe
Recorded By – Head, Harvey, Ellis
07.Highway '61 Revisited   2:57
Wri tten-By – Bob Dylan
08. 50 Ft Queenie    2:23
09. Yuri-G    3:38
10. Man-Size    3:16
11. Dry    3:23
12. Me-Jane    2:42
13. Snake    1:35
14. Ecstasy    4:27

LINE - UP

PJ HARVEY TRIO

                  

PJ Harvey – vocals, guitar, organ, cello, violin, producer (6)
Steve Vaughan – bass
Rob Ellis – drums, percussion, backing vocals, arrangement, producer (6)

HOOK LYRICS

                      

I was blind, I was lame
I was nothing 'til you came
And said "Babe, make you sing,
Make you feel like some queen" 

Said "I'll take you Kathleen
To your home and mine"
Lord, he hooked me
Fish hook and line

                     

And rode in, barking mad
With a halo of deep black
'Til my love made me gag
Called him daddy, take my hand

Said "I'll take you Kathleen
To your home and mine"
Good Lord, he hooked me
Fish hook and line

I'm hooked
Oh higher
Oh beautiful
Oh higher
Oh beautiful
Oh higher

Now I'm blind and I'm lame
Left with nothing but his stain
"Daddy, your maid, she can't sing
She can't feel, she's no queen!"

Said "I'll take you Kathleen
To your home and mine"
Lord, he hooked me
Fish hook and line

Said "I'll take you Kathleen
To your home and mine"
Good Lord, he hooked me
Clean out of time

Flac Size: 277 MB

03.  PJ HARVEY - TO BRING YOU MY LOVE 1995

                         

To Bring You My Love feels theatrical, with each song representing a grand gesture. Relying heavily on religious metaphors and imagery borrowed from the blues, Harvey has written a set of songs that are lyrically reminiscent of Nick Cave's and Tom Waits' literary excursions into the gothic American

heartland. Since she was a product of post-punk, she's nowhere near as literally bluesy as Cave or Waits, preferring to embellish her songs with shards of avant guitar, eerie keyboards, and a dense, detailed production. It's a far cry from the primitive guitars of her first two albums, but Harvey pulls it off with style, since her songwriting is tighter and more melodic than before; the menacing "Down by the Water" has genuine hooks, as does the psycho stomp of "Meet Ze Monsta," the wailing "Long Snake Moan," and the stately "C'Mon Billy." 
                        

PJ Harvey – To Bring You My Love & The B Sides CD
Label: Island Records – CIDZ 8035, Island Records – 524 179-2
Format: CD, Album, All Media, Limited Edition
Country: Europe
Released: Jun 1995
Genre: Rock
Style: Indie Rock, Alternative Rock

CD1.  TO BRING YOU MY LOVE

                     

    
01. To Bring You My Love   5:33
E-Bow – Joe Gore
Guitar, Organ, Vibraphone, Vocals – Polly Jean Harvey
Percussion, Guitar – John Parish
02. Meet Ze Monsta   3:29
Drums – Jean-Marc Butty
Guitar – Joe Gore
Guitar, Percussion – John Parish
Organ, Vocals – Polly Jean Harvey
03. Working For The Man   4:49
Drums – Joe Dilworth
Guitar – Joe Gore
Organ, Vocals – Polly Jean Harvey
Percussion – John Parish
04. C'mon Billy   2:50
Drums, Percussion – John Parish
Guitar – Joe Gore
Organ, Guitar, Vocals – Polly Jean Harvey
05. Teclo   4:58
Drums – John Parish
Guitar, Organ, Piano, Chimes, Bells, Vocals – Polly Jean Harvey
06. Long Snake Moan   5:15
Bass – Mick Harvey
Guitar – Joe Gore
Guitar, Drums, Percussion, Organ – John Parish
Organ [Hammond], Piano, Vocals – Polly Jean Harvey
07. Down By The Water   3:14
Drums, Percussion – John Parish
Guitar – Joe Gore
Organ, Vocals – Polly Jean Harvey
08. I Think I'm A Mother   4:02
Drums – John Parish
Guitar, Organ, Vocals – Polly Jean Harvey
09. Send His Love To Me   4:20
Organ [Hammond] – Mick Harvey
Organ, Marimba, Percussion, Vocals – Polly Jean Harvey
Percussion – Jean-Marc Butty
Percussion, Guitar – John Parish
10. The Dancer   4:05
Guitar, Drums, Percussion – John Parish
Organ, Vocals – Polly Jean Harvey

Flac Size: 189 MB

CD2. THE B SIDES    

                           

   
01. Reeling (Four Track Version)   2:59
Instruments [All], Vocals – Polly Jean Harvey
Recorded By – Polly Jean Harvey
02. Daddy   3:16
Instruments [All] – Rob Ellis
Recorded By – Head, Ellis
Vocals – Polly Jean Harvey
Written-By – Harvey, Ellis
03. Lying In The Sun   4:30
Guitar, Drums, Cello, Vocals – Polly Jean Harvey
Violin – Sonia Slany
04. Somebody's Down, Somebody's Name   3:39
Drums – Jean-Marc Butty
Drums, Guitar – John Parish
Guitar, Organ [Hammond], Vocals – Polly Jean Harvey
05. Darling Be There   3:46
Harmonium, Organ, Keyboards, Vocals – Polly Jean Harvey
06.Maniac   4:01
Drums – Jean-Marc Butty
Guitar – Joe Gore
Organ, Piano, Vocals – Polly Jean Harvey
Percussion, Guitar – John Parish
07. One Time Too Many   2:52
Drums – Jean-Marc Butty
Guitar, Organ, Vocals – Polly Jean Harvey
Guitar, Percussion, Drums – John Parish
08. Harder (Studio Version)   2:04
Bass – Mick Harvey
Guitar, Drums – John Parish
Organ, Keyboards, Piano, Vocals – Polly Jean Harvey
09. Goodnight   4:17
Recorded By – Polly Jean Harvey
Vocals, Instruments [All] – Polly Jean Harvey

Flac Size: 243 MB

LINE - UP

                  

PJ Harvey – vocals, organ, guitar (1, 4, 5, 8), piano (5, 6), vibraphone (1), marimba (9), bells (5), chimes (5), percussion (9)
John Parish – guitar (1, 2, 6, 9, 10), organ (6), drums (4–8, 10), percussion (1–4, 6, 7, 9, 10)
Joe Gore – guitar (2–4, 6, 7), e-bow (1)
Mick Harvey – bass (6), organ (9)
Jean-Marc Butty – drums (2), percussion (9)
Joe Dilworth – drums (3)
Pete Thomas – string arrangements
Sonia Slany – violin (4, 7, 9)
Jocelyn Pook – viola (4, 7, 9)
Jules Singleton – viola (4, 7, 9)
Sian Bell – cello (4, 7, 9)

LONG SNAKE MOAN LYRICS

                         

Dunk you under
Deep salt water
Bring me, lover
All your power
I'll be no hell
Out of your spell
Over, under
Die of pleasure

In my dreaming
You'll be drowning
Hell's low, God above
All drunk on my love

You oughta hear my long snake moan
You oughta see me crawl my room

               

Dunk you under
Deep salt water
In my dreaming
You'll be drowning
Raise me up, lord
Call me Lazarus
Hey lord, heal me
Make ready my veil

You oughta see my long snake moan
You oughta see me crawl my room
It's my voodoo working
It's my voodoo working
It's my voodoo working
It's my voodoo working
Moan
Moan
Moan
Moan
Woo

04.  JOHN PARRISH & PJ HARVEY - DANCE HALL AT LOUSE POINT 1996

                     

After releasing the '90s rock masterpiece To Bring You My Love, Polly Jean Harvey deflected the immense pressure of a follow-up by teaming with guitarist John Parish for this 1996 collaboration.  Fans and critics heaping praise on To Bring You My Love producer Flood might be surprised how the Parish- and Harvey-produced "Heela" heads into its own grating, layered guitar crescendo that matches

"Long Snake Moan" with its groaning vocals and relentless slide guitars. Dance Hall at Louse Point is in no way a strict duplication of Parish and Harvey's prior work together on To Bring You My Love. Listeners more appreciative of Harvey's earlier work will relish the songstress' squeals, whispers, and howls over jangling atonal guitar figures and blues motifs that recall Dry and Rid of Me. Fellow members of the Bristol music "tribe," Parish and Harvey share more than studio experience and art rock influences; they possess uncommon instinct and a genius-level connection to rock's bluesy, isolated, threatening soul. This collaboration records the artists during a time when their portal to that strange entity was at its most dilated. 
                

John Parish & Polly Jean Harvey – Dance Hall At Louse Point
Label: Island Records – 314-524 278-2
Format: CD, Album
Country: US
Released: Sep 24, 1996
Genre: Rock
Style: Indie Rock, Alternative Rock

TRACKS

                       

01. Girl    1:29
02. Rope Bridge Crossing    5:10
03. City Of No Sun    2:14
04. That Was My Veil    3:01
05. Urn With Dead Flowers In A Drained Pool    3:03
06. Civil War Correspondent    4:23
07. Taut    3:15
08. Un Cercle Autour Du Soleil    5:07
09. Heela    3:19
10. Is That All There Is?   5:11
Organ, Bass, Guitar [Additional] – Mick Harvey
Written-By – J. Leiber & M. Stoller
11. Dance Hall At Louse Point    2:10
12. Lost Fun Zone    1:27

LINE - UP

                   

Mick Harvey – Organ, Bass, Guitar (10), Bass (Electric), Drums, Producer
PJ Harvey – Producer, vocals & lyrics
John Parish – Producer, Engineer, all instruments

Flac Size: 228 MB

05.  PJ HARVEY - IS THIS DESIRE? 1998

                               

Retreating from the limelight after the tour for To Bring You My Love, PJ Harvey returned to her small

hometown of Yeovil and isolated herself from most pop trends, eventually writing the material that would come to comprise her fourth album, Is This Desire? Released over three and a half years after To Bring You My Love, Is This Desire? has all the hallmarks of a record written in isolation; subtle, cerebral, insular, difficult to assimilate, it's the album where Polly Harvey enters the ranks of craftsmen, sacrificing confession for fiction. It's an inevitable transition for any artist, especially one as lyrically

gifted as Harvey, and though her words are more obtuse and not as brutal, painful, or clever, she still draws some effective character sketches. Similarly, the music on Is This Desire? is hardly the immediate, blunt force that characterized her first albums, nor is it the grand theater of To Bring You My Love -- it takes its time, slowly working its way into the subconsciousness. 
                   

P J Harvey – Is This Desire?
Label: Island Records – 314-524 563-2
Format: CD, Album
Country: US
Released: Sep 29, 1998
Genre: Rock
Style: Indie Rock, Alternative Rock

TRACKS

                 

01. Angelene   3:34
Arranged By – Mick Harvey
02. The Sky Lit Up   1:53
Producer [Additional Production], Mixed By [Additional Mixes By] – Marius De Vries
03. The Wind   4:01
Producer [Additional Production], Mixed By [Additional Mixes By] – Marius De Vries
04. My Beautiful Leah    2:00
05. A Perfect Day Elise    3:06
06. Catherine    4:05
07. Electric Light    3:05
08. The Garden   4:13
Arranged By – Rob Ellis
09. Joy    3:40
10. The River   4:53
Trumpet – Terry Edwards
11. No Girl So Sweet   2:46
Violin – Richard Hunt
12. Is This Desire?    3:26

LINE - UP

               

PJ Harvey – vocals, guitar
Mick Harvey – bass, keyboards
John Parish – guitar, keyboards
Rob Ellis – drums, percussion
Eric Drew Feldman – piano, keyboards

ADDITIONAL MUSICIANS

Joe Gore – guitar
Jeremy Hogg – guitar
Terry Edwards – trumpet (10)
Richard Hunt – violin (11)

Flac Size: 231 MB

06.  PJ HARVEY - STORIES FROM THE CITY, STORIES FROM THE SEA 2000

                  

The album became the second major commercial success of her recording career, following her

successful breakthrough To Bring You My Love (1995). Upon its release, the album received acclaim from most music critics and earned Harvey several accolades. Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 88, based on 25 reviews. NME hailed it as "a magnificent, life-affirming opus" by Harvey. Robert Christgau called it "the best album of her career" in his review for Rolling Stone. 
              

P J Harvey – Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea
Label: Island Records – CIDZ 8099, Island Records – 548 144-2
Format: CD, Album, UML Germany Pressing
Country: Europe
Released: 2000
Genre: Rock
Style: Indie Rock, Alternative Rock

TRACKS

                  

01. Big Exit   3:51
02. Good Fortune   3:20
03. A Place Called Home   3:42
04. One Line   3:14
05. Beautiful Feeling   4:00
06. The Whores Hustle And The Hustlers Whore   4:00
07. This Mess We're In   3:57
08. You Said Something   3:19
09. Kamikaze   2:24
10. This Is Love   3:48
11. Horses In My Dreams   5:37
12. We Float   6:07

LINE - UP

              

PJ Harvey – vocals, guitar (1–3, 5–11), bass (1), keyboards (3, 4, 8, 10), piano (12), djembe (12), maracas (6), e-bow (12), producer, engineer
Rob Ellis – drums (2, 3, 6–12), piano (2, 3, 7, 11, 12), tambourine (1, 8, 10), synthesizer (2), keyboards (12), bells (12), harpsichord (1), electric piano (2), vibraphone (4), background vocals (11, 12), producer
Mick Harvey – organ (12), bass (2–4, 6–12), drums (1, 4), percussion (3), harmonium (1), keyboards (7, 9, 10), accordion (4), background vocals (11, 12), producer

ADDITIONAL MUSICIANS

Thom Yorke – vocals (4, 5, 7), keyboards (4)

BIG EXIT LYRICS

                  

Look out ahead
I see danger come
I want a pistol
I want a gun
I'm scared baby
I wanna run
This world's crazy
Give me the gun

Baby, baby ain't it true
I'm immortal when I'm with you
But I want a pistol in my hand
I wanna go to a different land

                           

                 

I met a man
He told me straight
You gotta leave
It's getting late
Too many cops
Too many guns
All trying to do something
No-one else has done

Baby, baby ain't it true
I'm immortal when I'm with you
But I want a pistol in my hand
I want to go to a different land

Sometimes it rains so hard
And I feel the hurt in my heart
Feels like the end of the world
I see the children, sharp as knives
I see the children dead and lives
Beautiful people, beautiful girls
I just feel like it's the end of the world

                    

I walk on concrete
I walk on sand but I can't find a safe place to stand
I'm scared baby
I wanna run
This world's crazy
Gimme the gun

Baby, baby ain't it true
I'm immortal when I'm with you?
But I want a pistol in my hand
I wanna go to a different land

Flac Size: 307 MB