No. 435: To Bring You My love

Band: PJ Harvey
Album: To Bring You My Love
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: PJ Harvey's greatest work is dark, wet and awesome. Song topics range from bastard children and sex to work spirituals and infanticide, as Harvey's band dials up the low end and Harvey wails.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: Few albums are better. This should be in the top 100.
Best song: "Long Snake Moan" is a great modern blues record. "Meet Ze Monsta" is what the White Stripes wish they could do.
Worst song: I like this whole album.
Is it awesome?: Yes.

Rid of Me is brilliant and the follow up, "To Bring You My Love" is similarly brilliant. While "Rid of Me" has the standard Albini product- er, engineering of a straight live band, "To Bring You My Love" is more produced. That's not to say it isn't raw -- it is. But the sound is more mature and much more misanthropic.

Where "Rid of Me" is punk rock, "To Bring You My Love" is nouveau blues. The title track is slow and building with a lyric that recalls Southern U.S. religion (Harvey sings "I've cursed the devil" in a low burn). "Working for the Man" has similarly religious overtones ("God of piston, god of steel/God is here behind the wheel") over a metronomic 4/4 and a Pixies-on-quaaludes bassline. "C'Mon Billy" stands out as something of a folkier record, while Harvey's voice falls into a more desperate tone as strings frame the song.

On "Rid of Me," her raw sexuality powers the record, but the guided, lush misanthropy of the lyrics are the signature of "To Bring You My Love." Some of that still exists, as "Long Snake Moan" can attest. But, the darker side of humanity is where Harvey truly shines. "C'Mon Billy" is sung from the point of view of a woman who has birthed a child with an absent father (the title's protagonist). The album's sorta hit, "Down by the Water" is a tale of a woman dropping her daughter into the sea to drown. The song's draw, of course, is Harvey's delightfully scary whisper lyric over the last minute of the song ("Little fish, big fish, swimming in the water/Come back here, man, gimme my daughter"). Like a maniac on a killing spree, Harvey's voice is measured and scary.



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"To Bring You My Love" is about as universally acclaimed as a non-Beatles album can be. Rolling Stone, The Village Voice, The New York Times, People, USA Today, Hot Press and the Los Angeles Times all named it the no. 1 album of 1995. Spin, New Musical Express, Melody Maker and Mojo all placed the record in their year-end 1op 10 lists. Hell, even "Down By The Water" got decent rotation on MTV. It's understandable, as the album is amazing. It sounds wet, echoing Harvey's image on the cover.

Like Tom Waits, PJ Harvey is great at constructing crazy, catchy, experimental looks at the dark side of human nature. "To Bring You My Love" is her opus.

No. 405: Rid of Me

Band: PJ Harvey
Album: Rid of Me
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: British singer Polly Jean Harvey's second album didn't fit the grunge/riot grrl scene nor did it fit into Britpop of the era. Produced by Steve Albini, "Rid of Me" has the sound of the tightest band playing a show for only a few people, featuring Harvey's desperate vocals and piercing guitar.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: This is a record that could really stand to be higher just on quality.
Best song: It's probably cliche, but "50 Ft. Queenie" is a force of nature. "Yuri G" is great, and the title track is a classic.
Worst song: The Dylan cover is terrible. I mean, just awful.
Is it awesome?: Yes.

When signed to a major label, how would an artist send a message to said label that s/he isn't the label's puppet? Call Steve Albini.

Rid of Me was when I'd first signed to a major label and I felt that I wanted to—more than ever—demonstrate that I was not going to be the kind of usually expected major artist material [laughs]. So, I chose to work with Steve Albini, who is definitely not a particularly commercial engineer and I made a very difficult record. And I'm glad I did because I think it really did set the tone

Polly Jean Harvey's 2004 quote to Filter magazine mostly sums up the album. It's controlled fury, guided by the masterful hand of Albini's "band playing live" sound. Hired on the basis of his work with the Pixies, Albini's signatures (vocals low in the mix, deep distorted guitars, well-mic-ed rhytymn cymbals, etc.) are all over this record and it remains his best product-, er, engineering work.

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It's probably sexist for me to sound as though I am putting this record's greatness on Albini. Albini's engineering fits the album well, but the greatness remains in Harvey's songwriting and powerful voice.

"Rid of Me" shares the aggressive third-wave feminism with much of the riot grrl music of the similar time, though the album's confident pomposity separates it from the amelodic punk rock of the Pacific Northwest.

The wave of guitar, for example, of "50 Ft. Queenie" almost overtakes a listener like few other hard rock songs. As Harvey counts up the inch count ("I'm 20 inches long" to "50 inches long" eventually), the song ramps up into a full-forced tsunami.

The album's lyrics, of course, are nearly the picture of third wave aggressive feminism. Like Liz Phair, Harvey's lyrics suggest a woman about to tear you apart. Between the lyrics of "Dry" and the explosive nature (and title) of "Rub 'Til It Bleeds," Harvey's sexual prowess and demand isn't questioned.

The title track, of course, is both timeless and a product of the musical landscape from which it came. The Pixies-esque dynamics and production certainly date it from a time, as does the forwardness of the lyrics. Still, Harvey's screaming inquisitions of "don't you wish you had never met her?" are catchy and interesting, while the snare drum snaps of the quiet segments fill the space between Harvey's perfect lyrics regarding her being on fire and her command to lick her legs.

It's a rollick and a near-perfect song. Like the whole record, it's aggressive, full of feeling and powerful.