The Garden, a PJ Harvey Discussion Site

LES vinyl is now listed on Amazon with a release date of the 25/8/21, no sign
Of the demos yet

Let England Shake [VINYL] https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08ZBJ4NF2/ ... Z5JQG82M62

Some really excellent reviews of the demos by Matthew Barton:

https://beatsperminute.com/please-dont- ... its-demos/
https://beatsperminute.com/tape-the-bro ... its-demos/
https://beatsperminute.com/this-is-love ... its-demos/
https://beatsperminute.com/trouble-taki ... and-demos/
https://beatsperminute.com/voodoo-worki ... -reissues/

Thanks for posting these, DrDark, I really enjoyed reading them. Matthew Barton seems to be a proper fan and knows his shit (I wonder if he lurks here!), kudos for BeatsPerMinute for assigning him with writing about this demo series.

gaviinj wrote:LES vinyl is now listed on Amazon with a release date of the 25/8/21, no sign
Of the demos yet

Let England Shake [VINYL] https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08ZBJ4NF2/ ... Z5JQG82M62

Find this : https://imusic.dk/music/0602507254063/p ... e-demos-lp

Released date : November 19, 2021 for let england shake demo vinyl. Wait and see...

zemonsta wrote:

I can't fucking wait to hear these demos.

Yes, me too. Out of all the demos, I am most enjoying White Chalk and so looking forward to Let England Shake's.

Agreed! I'm very excited about these, especially since the album version was basically re-recorded from scratch in Eype, so I assume the demos might be substantially different. I'm especially curious about the samples!

Shame it seems they won't be released until November (not really surprising, though).

A clue is the preliminary version of 'Let England Shake' which PJ performed on Andrew Marr's BBC show in 2010: a bit rough, to me!

Haha, yes, a bit off-key, especially in the chorus - but this dissonance makes me even more curious about the demo versions! I remember listening to those early performances in 2009/2010 and feeling that whatever was coming next would be a huge change for her, a similar jump to the one she made from UHH to WC - and it was indeed. I think her development between 2005 and 2010 was so rapid and extraordinary, especially at that fairly late stage of her career, and the demo records are to closest thing we can get to a document of this progress, off-key samples and rough piano playing included.

I also recall a quote by Mick Harvey or John Parish saying that the LES and TH6DP demos were unusually sparse and simple because as Polly's focus moved towards words, she finally felt confident enough to let the musical aspect be worked out organically and spontaneously in the 'studio' (well... a church and a museum) instead of pre-arranging everything and sticking to her initial ideas, so the gap between her home recordings and the final versions might be wider this time.

Has anyone got any intel on what's happened to the reissues and demos project? It was running at a real pace for so long, but has been quiet for a good while.

Probably the massive vinyl manufacturing delays are to blame - they have been plaguing the industry for quite a while now and are getting worse and worse each year (and have been made even more severe by the pandemic in the past ~2 years). Unfortunately Adele or Ed Sheeran need their overpriced colour collectors' edition vinyl pressed while nostalgia rock acts require yet another repress of their hit LP from 40 years ago to coincide with a greatest hits / reunion cash grab stadium tour, so the pressing plants are overbooked and other artists gotta wait. Which is a blow to new/upcoming/independent acts in an already dying industry but that's for another rant! Basically, if you are planning to release an album in 2024, now it's a good time to send it to get pressed.

Anyway, apparently the LES demos have been showing up in some online stores with a late January release date now?
https://www.blackvinylrecordsspain.com/ ... s-28-01-22

Thanks, TheNightingale - good analysis re vinyl demand, and intriguing re the LES demos info.

LES and HSDP are both coming, just delayed. LES looks to be the end of January though not yet 100% confirmed...

Confirmed! The reissue and the demos are coming on January 28th.

Here's the "Let England Shake" demo: https://open.spotify.com/track/31BF65cr ... e30f984594