The Garden, a PJ Harvey Discussion Site

thedude_xyz wrote:Why no love for A WOMAN A MAN WALKED BY?

She barks like a dog, for f*cks sake! ;-)

is a great album but there is still time to become a classic,like TBYML...

ITD?
TBYML
SFTC, SFTS

........

UHH
DHALP
Dry Demonstration

there, you said it: Dry Demonstration! - would certainly be one of my top three faves, but then the Demo album would have to be a separate alternative in this poll, or...? because I wouldn't place Dry (the regular, non-demo version) among my top three.

Bump for newcomers!

Rid Of Me
To Bring You My Love
White Chalk

But this changes monthly LOL

Is This Desire?
To Bring You My Love
White Chalk

RID OF ME
TO BRING YOU MY LOVE
STORIES

3 #1'S

Amanda_ataxia wrote:TBYML
SFTC,SFTS
White Chalk

These are my personal favorites as well. Although, there are essential tracks on all her records, and I actually have listened to and enjoyed the Peel Sessions LP many many times.

Rid Of Me, Is This Desire and To Bring You My Love is just.. amazing albums!

Never appreciated listening to an album in its full before I found PJ. I also love 4-track demos and The Peel Sessions. I love the roughness of the demos and you can't go wrong with a PJ Harvey live record!

In chronological order

To Bring You My Love
Is This Desire?
Uh Huh Her

1. Rid Of Me
2. To Bring You My Love
3. White Chalk

But I'm rapidly falling in love with Let England Shake. I could also easily put Is This Desire? in there and the ranking would be just as accurate.

I generally find it quite hard to pick favourites, as I mostly like different albums in different ways and don't really compare them that much. Since I am rather new to PJ Harvey's music, there is still much left to further explore.

But so far the three albums I relate to the most emotionally are the following:

Is This Desire?
Uh Huh Her
Let England Shake

I think I can say that "Is This Desire?" is my favourite. This album is really almost perfect to me, except for "No Girl So Sweet" maybe which I somehow find disturbing between the more calm songs "The River" and "Is This Desire?". It is just so deep on an emotional level. And the way how it alternaties between quite loud ("Perfect Day Elise" / "Joy") and low (and lofi) tracks ("Electric Light", "Catherine") makes for really nice dynamics. After the exhausting effect of compressed and thick electronic sounds there always follows space/air to breathe and relax.

In my opinion, "Uh Huh Her" follows very much the above principle, the transition between "overloading" and then space. And then there is "The Darker Days Of Me And Him". There has probably never been a song that touched me so deeply. It's like the soundtrack of my life. For me this is PJ's most "human" and stripped-down album. Very close to the core. The only track I find quite difficult to listen to is "Cat On The Wall". It's just very compressed (read: loud) without any air. The way the louder tracks are produced just works better on "Is This Desire?".

Then "Let England Shake". Obviously this album is rather fresh, so it will need some months for the excitement of getting new input fade away and take a more distanced look on it. But so far I find it to be a very visual album. It has these very strong pictures like "as we're advancing in the sun" or "cruel nature has won again". When these lyrics pop up it starts a really intense "head cinema". And I don't want to be taken out of this imagination process. It feels like PJ's most "mature" album, like saying "I've grown up to a woman now finally".

But of course I like the other albums, too. Dry, Rid Of Me and To Bring You My Love for example have a much "broader" sound in the sense that they are less thick and more airy and dynamic and they have a much bigger "stero stage" (I don't know the English word for it, I mean the "physical" volume and space it uses; the ability to fill the room with 3-dimensional sound when played). For example in the song "Rid Of Me" where the loud part kicks in or similarily on "Happy And Bleeding". This is something I definitely miss on the more recent albums. It's a great pleasure to blast them on a loud level through a good stereo system. However, I don't relate to these albums as much emotionally.

Kueken

RoM
ITD
DH@LP - which i only really picked up on properly after last years A WOMAN A MAN WALKED BY tour - the Dance Hall stuff is absolutely brilliant live & the studio versions just don't do it justice.

mart wrote:RoM
ITD
DH@LP - which i only really picked up on properly after last years A WOMAN A MAN WALKED BY tour - the Dance Hall stuff is absolutely brilliant live & the studio versions just don't do it justice.

Hi any way we could edit the poll to add Let England shake? When I originally made I set it so people can change their votes if they wish as I knew there'd be another album. So is it possible? thanks!

Sure no problem! Just edit your post and....

Ok, so there's one problem. The poll results are erased, I had no idea this would happen. Sorry!

Everyone will have to vote again, my apologies, but then, the field has changed too.

Also, I don't have time at the moment to add a thumbnail photo. Carry on.