http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicbl ... harvey-dryMy favourite album: Dry by PJ Harvey
Our writers are picking their favourite albums. Here, Sian Rowe reveals her thirst for PJ Harvey's dazzling debut
I was 13 years old when I started to realise I no longer related to the pop music of my childhood (Now That's What I Call Music Volumes 38 – 45, basically). Those artists had good hair and relentless pep. I didn't.
At some point between flirting with nu-metal, pop punk and UK garage I discovered PJ Harvey, who was strutting around in a white catsuit on MTV2 and singing spooky love songs to scarecrow-like men (my thoughts on Thom Yorke have changed … slightly). I bought Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea and liked it, but a year later I managed to get my hands on a copy of Dry. After one listen, I was in love.
Recorded at the Icehouse in Yeovil, Dry was released by Too Pure in June 1992. It was praised (by John Peel, among others) for its sexy, scorched sound, but it only really became a talking point when Harvey dared to flash her – shock! horror! – unshaven armpit on the cover of NME.
It was thought that Dry and its follow-up Rid of Me were the product of a breakdown Harvey was suffering. In reality, as she told the Observer's Amy Raphael in 2009, it was the disintegration of a relationship and the overwhelming intensity of London after she'd grown up in rural Dorset. These are albums of stories, yes, but not solely autobiographical ones.
In the 10 years since I first heard the record, the meanings I attach to the songs have changed faster than my hormones. Despite it being my favourite album, I was often lost as to the meaning of the songs and spent much time just inventing my own readings of Harvey's music. On one occasion, I remember relating the Samson of Hair to a crush on men with long hair rather than an exploration of how the Bible often views women as baddies. It took me years to realise the rollicking Sheela-Na-Gig, the only Dry single to chart, is actually a tribute to Celtic carvings of women with exaggerated vulvas.
Dress, the debut single, was equally open to interpretation. To me, it was initially about "going out dancing" (themes revisited in many albums I love, from TLC's Fanmail to Katy B's most recent) but I've come to see it as a beautifully frantic stream of consciousness, delivered sharply with strutting guitar and Rob Ellis's jolting drums. "Why do we dress to please?" I sometimes think, empathising with how a dress and heels often ends in "falling over like a heavy-loaded fruit tree".
Often, though, when I'm not in the mood to give a toss about lyrics or meanings, I just flail along with the chugging guitar and stonking bridge. Perhaps this is what makes Dry so powerful for me – the fact Harvey can be deep and meaningful, but still have the knack for a good "WOAHHH OHHHH" or "WHAY HAYYYY".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicbl ... harvey-dry
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