PJ Harvey

[UnforgettableLemon]

It's been a while (I think), since we've had a general PJ Harvey-goodness thread. Since I've been binging on Nick Cave lately, it's only natural that I return to PJ Harvey, the woman who turned me on to Nick in the first place. I've also discovered that I have a friend in my grad program here who is susceptible to influence from my musical tastes. She's a big Tom Waits fan, and so I've filled in some of the gaps in his catalogue for her. I'm also going to do some Nick Cave and PJ Harvey for her and see how that goes over. The Nick Cave stuff will be hard for me to narrow down, but PJ's back catalogue is much more managable.

Now that I've had some time for White Chalk to sink in, I can say that I do enjoy it. It's still not my favorite PJ album by far, but it's much better than Uh Huh Her, which felt a little forced to me. My favorites are probably a toss-up between To Bring You My Love and Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea. Still, there are undeniably great songs on each of her albums, and, hate to say it, the singles are always killer. She's certainly not just a singles artist, but her singles are good.

With that in mind, the PJ Harvey CD I'm burning for Kathleen will be something of a "greatest hits." They're the most accessible tracks, and I've got a second disc ready to go if she seems interested.

Disc One
1. Good Fortune
2. The Letter
3. Henry Lee (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds w/ PJ Harvey)
4. Rid of Me
5. Long Snake Moan
6. When Under Ether
7. Down By the Water
8. Sheela Na Gig
9. C'Mon Billy
10. This is Love
11. The Piano
12. A Perfect Day Elise
13. Who the Fuck?
14. Dress
15. The Devil
16. Send His Love to Me
17. You Said Something
18. You Came Through
19. 50 Foot Queenie
20. The Wind
21. Shame
22. Man-Size
23. A Place Called Home
24. That Was My Veil (John Parish and PJ Harvey)

Disc Two (not yet sequenced)
Big Exit
O Stella
Happy & Bleeding
Angelene
No Girl So Sweet
Is This Desire?
Uh Huh Her
Rub 'Til It Bleeds
Highway '61 Revisited
Yuri-G
Dry
One Line
The Whores Hustle And The Hustlers Whore
To Bring You My Love
Meet Ze Monsta
You Came Through
The Desperate Kingdom Of Love
The Darker Days Of Me & Him
Dear Darkness
White Chalk
The Mountain
Goodnight

 

[LemonMelon]

What's a good starting point?

 

[UnforgettableLemon]

Many people worship her early stuff, and it is really good. If you're looking for something raw (but brilliantly structured), I'd say start with Dry or Rid of Me, though I prefer the former because Steve Albini's production drives me nuts on the latter. But to be honest, the most accessible place to start is either Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea or To Bring You My Love. My pick would be Stories, but the "seminal classics" (i.e. MTV hit "Down by the Water") are on To Bring You My Love. So basically, I'd start off this way:

1. Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea
2. Dry

Figure out which one you like more and why, or what things you like and don't like, and people can point you in the right direction from there. I just wouldn't start with the last two albums (Uh Huh Her and White Chalk) or Is This Desire?. They're all rewarding in their own way, I guess, especially Chalk. Just not starting places. Downloading some of the tracks from my first list might give you an idea, too.

 

[LemonMelon]

Thanks. I've heard a couple from To Bring You My Love and was intrigued.

 

[Saracene]

Ah jeez, where to start. My favourite artist of all time, male or female, and has been for nearly nine years now, Amazingly consistent, too; I'd say that Uh Huh Her is the only album of hers which doesn't quite come together as an album though it's got some stellar individual tracks. If I ranked her albums in terms of favourites, right now it would probably go like this:

1. To Bring You My Love
2. White Chalk
3. Rid of Me
4. Is This Desire?
5. Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea
6. Dry
7. Uh Huh Her
8. Dance Hall at Louse Point (her project with John Parrish)

I'd recommend either Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea or To Bring You My Love as a starting point.

...and with me it was the opposite: I've discovered PJ Harvey through Nick Cave, namely through Henry Lee, their duet together. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,

 

[UnforgettableLemon]

...and with me it was the opposite: I've discovered PJ Harvey through Nick Cave, namely through Henry Lee, their duet together. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,

Well, at least it was the same song. Really, there's a complicated way in which I can blame all of this on Korn. When I was in 8th grade, and didn't know better, I thought Korn was all badass. So I listened to everything they promoted. Yes, everything. So I bought the Orgy CD, but to hide it from my mom, I bought U2's Best of 1980-1990 as well. Which pretty much changed my life. I bought Stories From the City, Stories from the Sea so I could be familiar before the show, and loved it. Then of course branched out, found Henry Lee, and here we are 10 years later.

So yeah, for me

Korn -> Orgy -> U2 -> PJ Harvey -> Nick Cave

I'm so going to regret sharing this.

 

[DrTeeth]

I think you've made a good list of songs, but any PJ Harvey compilation couldn't possibly be considered complete without The Dancer.

 

[UnforgettableLemon]

I may sub it in for Meet Ze Monsta or one of the Is this Desire? tracks. I don't love most of them out of the album context.

 

[TranceEnding]

PJ

The compilation CDs sound amazing .... I hope your friend enjoys them I immediately thought of perhaps adding 'Horses in My Dreams' .. such a beautiful song.

'White Chalk' has really, really grown on me and, especially after seeing her perform in concert recently, I've really fallen in love with it. I've also been listening to 'Uh Huh Her' quite alot lately too.

Maybe I'm just really biased , but I think each of her albums are brilliant in their own way

 

[UnforgettableLemon]

Hmmm.... I also want to add "One Time Too Many"

hmmmm

 

[TranceEnding]

It would be interesting to hear the Nick Cave comps also (I'm also a huge fan ). At the moment, I'm stuck on the 'Henry's Dream' CD ... 'Jack the Ripper'

 

[UnforgettableLemon]

It would be interesting to hear the Nick Cave comps also (I'm also a huge fan ). At the moment, I'm stuck on the 'Henry's Dream' CD ... 'Jack the Ripper'

The huge four disc setlist is in the thread for Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!

Narrowing it down beyond that, well, that's going to be hard. First things that will have to go will be Grinderman and The Birthday Party.

 

[yertle-the-turtle]

Orgy? Dude...

One of my favourite PJ Harvey songs is 'Memphis', which is a nice tribute to Jeff Buckley song on the b-side to 'Good Fortune'. I might have gotten it off this forum, I don't remember, but it's a lovely song.

 

[UnforgettableLemon]

Orgy? Dude...

One of my favourite PJ Harvey songs is 'Memphis', which is a nice tribute to Jeff Buckley song on the b-side to 'Good Fortune'. I might have gotten it off this forum, I don't remember, but it's a lovely song.

I told you, I'm not necessarily proud. If anything, it's tale of overcoming the adversity of one's inferior past self. As for "Memphis," I haven't heard it. I do, however, enjoy Rufus Wainwright's "Memphis Skyline," which is also a tribute to Jeff Buckley.