Album Rating: 3.0

4. Rid Of Me



In 2023 her primal, sexual, sensual, abrasive persona is now but a distant memory. But I think the passing of time only empowers her first 3 albums with even more impact when returning to them. Raw and visceral - it’s like an adrenaline shot in comparison to where she is now.



And she shines just as much (if not more) when she brings the tempo down on tracks like Missed and Dry - where you can really hear the true power of her vocals and the deep thrum of the bass. While the guitar and drums clatter around her.



There are some amazing songs on here, but the album does feel like it drags at times and as such for me overall it doesn’t succeed as well as Dry. Likely due to a rather restricted musical approach and production - most tracks all sound too similar so I find the following fairly superfluous: Legs, Hook, Man Size Sextet, Highway 61 Revisited, Me Jane, Snake.



But when it’s good, it’s something very special - favourite tracks Missed, Rub Till it Bleeds, Man Size, Dry.

Album Rating: 3.0

5. Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea



Polished with a lighter touch, even upbeat in comparison to previous albums but still with a thread of melancholy weaving through the tracks. All the low end rumble, abrasive edginess and groans and shrieks have gone, and in their place a high end sheen and sparkle - guitars just as front and centre as before but now clean and shimmering. The dirty blues replaced with a more straight up alternative rock sound.



Although occasionally the older energy creeps back in with tracks like The Whores Hustle, Kamikaze, This is Love, This Wicked Tongue.



Tracks like Beautiful Feeling, You Said Something, and Horses in my Dreams feel a bit uneventful in comparison to the rest.



Favourite tracks - A Place called Home, showing the same kind understated power of Teclo, This Is Love, absolute classic PJ Harvey, We Float, an airy gentle take on the Is This Desire approach, and This Wicked Tongue. And oddly I prefer One Line to This Mess We’re In. I find Thom Yorke’s backing vocals far more effecting and haunting than when’s he’s sharing the vocal limelight.

Album Rating: 3.0

That ends my top 5 and pretty much the only albums that I continue to invest any time in. There are gems for sure in the following ones, but I’m unlikely to ever play them in their entirely. Whilst I can appreciate the artistic vision and direction she has taken in albums such as White Chalk and Let England Shake - it’s just not a sound that I necessarily seek or want in her music. And crucially it’s just not a sound that really connects with me, especially when stretched across the entire length of an album.

Album Rating: 3.0

6. White Chalk



Following on from the very mediocre Uh Huh Her and 12 years/6 albums of guitar-centric music (with the exception of Is This Desire), White Chalk brought a completely new direction and much needed change in her sound. So on the one hand I understand how and why this album needed to happen and sound the way it did, it’s just the results are not something that I can entirely enjoy for several reasons.



My main issue is with her persistence in using her falsetto voice, which really does little for me when it is over-used. Those higher register vocals begin to wear thin very quickly when they appear in song after song after song. She has such a powerful and evocative vocal range that is just painfully neglected and left collecting dust.



The album does however have a wonderful haunting quality to it, and at under 35 minutes long it does manage to avoid over staying its welcome. So as a fairly concise, singular vision I have to concede that it works perfectly well.



Quiet, subtle, haunting piano pieces that take multiple listens before they start to reveal themselves. A very different PJ Harvey that takes a while to adjust to. But no doubt, there are several songs that do manage to hit the spot such as Dear Darkness, When Under Ether, White Chalk, and Silence. unfortunately the rest range from average to grating.

Album Rating: 3.0

7. Let England Shake



Musically, this feels like even more of a departure than White Chalk. This one took a long time to get to grips with. The instrumentation sounds like nothing she has done before. Unfortunately her higher register vocals dominate again - and that really injures my experience of this album.



Further developing and embellishing upon the instrumentation of White Chalk - the more minimal, acoustic, traditional folk approach which does sound original and interesting.



I can get lost in the structure - picking out all of the acoustic and brass instruments - it is a wonderfully warm sound but there is almost always something else that prevents me from fully enjoying it.



But too many misses for this album to be an essential one - the cavalry horn in The Glorious Land - just so unnecessary and really breaks that swirling build of strumming guitars. The roots reggae chant of blood and fire in Written on the Forehead feels awkward and out of place. The Colour of the Earth is just awful - some school campfire whimsical singalong. Vocals on England are not good, Hanging in the Wire is fairly mundane.



But there are Some hits here for sure. In The Dark Places, The Nightingale, Bitter Branches, All and Everyone, The Last Living Rose all stand out for me and are great songs.

Album Rating: 3.0

8. Uh Huh Her



Released nearly 20 years ago, this actually turned out to be the last we’d hear from the raw, raucous, deep-bass, heavy PJ Harvey. Maybe she abandoned that side of her voice/sound after this fairly mediocre retread of her preceding 5 albums.



I really enjoyed this album when it came out but it has not aged well when set against her discography as a whole. It can be seen as an exercise in plundering her previous albums - each song clearly attributable to one or other album that came before. But as a lesser, more inferior reflection rather than bringing something new to an established sound.



Highlights are Shame, Who the Fuck, The Letter, The Darker Days of Me and Him.

Album Rating: 3.0

9. The Hope Six Demolition Project



The most immediate realisation to have when I heard this was that of massive disappointment - that in the 5 years that had passed since Let England Shake there was no discernible change in sound. To the point that this could have been released as unreleased tracks and b-sides from that album. For someone with such a chameleon nature as PJ Harvey this felt like a big let down.



Things actually started well with this album and The Ministry of Defence really caught my attention with its repetitive rhythmic bluesy guitar slam in conjunction with drums and brass - and with the later saxophone section - absolutely love everything about this song. This song felt like a perfect mix of old and new PJ Harvey. But sadly, things went downhill fast after this.



Everything that follows just feels so lacking of any life, energy or character. It just feels like she has wrung the life out of the traditional folk protest sound that she has been following of late. And if I hear anymore male chanting backing vocals on her new songs it will be too soon. I think she’s done enough on these last 2 albums. It’s just so omnipresent on this and Let England Shake and because of this, it’s begun to really irk me. I get that it really feeds into the whole sound she is after, and imbues the songs with an old traditional kind of sound. And They are of course present in my two favourites here - The Ministry of Defence and The Wheel. But please - no more.



Weakest PJ album and I just hope that the new one sees her once again seeking and exploring new sounds.

Album Rating: 4.0

Dry over let England shake? Lmao

Album Rating: 3.0

Every time

lmao no

Album Rating: 3.0

Let England Shake is one of those albums that I want to love and wish I enjoyed more, but it’s not happening. It’s a bit like what happened with Nick Cave, such a massive fan but after Abbattoir/Orpheus I’m just left cold by what followed.

Album Rating: 3.5

I still feel like this needs defending tbh

Album Rating: 4.0

I really love let England shake and hope six, I get the criticism that they are quite similar but I'd have loved for her to continue in this more grounded vein. I suppose she's more of a restless spirit, or maybe she just felt burned after the weird overreaction to this

Album Rating: 3.2

“Dry over let England shake?”

100%

Album Rating: 2.5

Jamming this again and yikes it's sounding more superficial than ever

Album Rating: 4.0

Lol I give up

LES: actually good and interesting and catchy.
dry: ok-ish debut. More potential than actually good songwriting.

Factos

Album Rating: 3.5

Man these PJ Harvey takes are lame



The only one worth hating on is Uh Huh Her

Album Rating: 4.0

I'm with rabid on that one, and uh huh her is probably my least fave

Album Rating: 3.5

Dry > LES for me definitely



I'd even rate Hope Six over LES, the male humming and the brass/sax on some tracks make it badass, and I also like how it sounds underproduced. And it has great tunes.



Uh Huh Her: most of it is raw, into-your-face (a la Dry/Rid of Me), with gems like It's You or The Darker Days of Me & Him. I've always found it a very special record. Her live documentary On Tour: Please Leave Quietly is from that era; it is just perfect. One of my biggest regrets that I couldn't check her live back then.