A New York Minute

A few months ago I picked up an album from PJ Harvey that had just been released, Let England Shake.  I was blown away by the record because of Harvey’s powerful lyrics and her honed-in folk sound.  This was in contrast to my first exposure to her music; Rid of Me (1993) was deep in the alternative rock sound but still hanging onto the indie scene.  Let England Shake is probably the best album I have heard this year that was released in 2011.  Her vitriol against the British government’s involvement in several wars around the world is carefully written and evolves over the course of the album.

Harvey has been prolific in her musical career, having released nine studio albums since her debut in 1992 with Dry (she has been much slower in recent years releasing material, but she has also been involved in several collaborations during that time).  Her live shows have become more eccentric over the years, too, incorporating costumes and other stage props to add emphasis to her songs.  But it’s her ability to write catchy tunes that has garnered her critical success.  Nowhere is this more evident than in Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea (2000), one of her highest-rated albums released.

#52 – PJ Harvey, Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea (Metascore = 88)

I’ll just say this right now—I love this album!  Since I really hadn’t kept track of her recording career other than a few tracks here and there until Let England Shake, I wasn’t sure what to expect.  What I got floored me!  The album opens with three unbelievable tracks:  “Big Exit”, “Good Fortune”, and “A Place Called Home”.  From the beginning, you understand this is a tribute to a town she had grown to love during her time living there, New York City.  Harvey said in an interview she wanted Stories to be “as beautiful as possible…I want this album to sing and fly and be full of reverb and lush layers of melody.”  She achieved all of these things here.

While NYC is her primary muse here, love is the overriding theme.  With Stories Harvey seems to have emerged from the emotionally difficult period of her life that saw the releases of To Bring You My Love and Is This Desire?, which were much darker in tone.  While there are some minor tones throughout this record, the lyrics keep this a happier affair.  Consider her duet with Thom Yorke on “This Mess We’re In”, where two lovers are parting for the final time but are remembering their love in the city.  It’s a beautiful tune, one of the best on this disc.  “This Is Love” (a single from the record) announces this new found love that she wants to use to overcome the dread of events outside.

When I pulled up the critic grades, I saw Pitchfork gave this record a 5.5, and I was shocked, because on the Wikipedia report of this album Pitchfork had listed Stories as the 124^th best record of the 2000s (which I confirmed).  So I read the original review, and I can understand some of the comments.  PJ went from being a tortured soul channeling her inner angst to being the revival of Chrissy Hynde of the Pretenders.  I can understand the comparison – some of the tracks do give off a Chrissy Hynde vibe.  At the same time, though, the lyrics are still very powerful, the songs are catchy, and it’s another trick up Harvey’s sleeve, to go counter-intuitive to what people expect.

Consider the timing that Stories was released—October 23^rd, 2000—and the focus of the album—New York City.  Nearly 11 months later, she was in Washington, DC and witnessed the events at the Pentagon as a plane crashed into it.  She had seen the footage of the World Trade Center towers being destroyed, these symbols of a city she had come to love.  When she won the Mercury Award later that same day (the first female artist to do so), she said the whole day had been “surreal”.  Stories in retrospect reminds us of the beauty that existed in New York City before these terrible events.  I personally think this record should be higher up on the list.  It is an amazing listen.