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Polly Jean Strikes Again!

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 3 2007 12:00 AM

Submitted by Elsie. Edited By erin_broadley.

TAGS: PJ Harvey, music, white chalk, piano

English musician and songwriter, PJ Harvey, released her eighth studio album, White Chalk, on Tuesday September 24th and critics are giving it excellent reviews. The music is ethereal and takes you into another world--and a dark world at that. It might not be her best album, but it's definitely like nothing she's done before.

For the past 15 years, Harvey has been one of the boldest artists of rock. She is constantly reinventing herself, perhaps because she's uncomfortable in her own skin. But this is exactly why I love her. She's been known in the past to take on different personas, such as with her 1995 album To Bring You My Love, in which she was a femme fatal in a red dress. But this time around, she's something quite different: a ghost. She is an absent lover in "The Piano," an unborn child in "When Under Ether," and the narrator's grandmother in "To Talk to You."

Harvey ditches the bluesy guitar in this album, which leaves a minimalistic tone centered merely around piano and her voice. The voice, which Harvey calls her "church voice" has never been used before on any of her previous albums. It's these new inflections that give the songs on her new album such meaning.

I'm sure some may say this is Harvey's best album yet, while others will call it a genre-experiment, something that doesn't show the "true" PJ Harvey. One thing I can say is, the album is without a doubt, unforgettable and unlike anything else she has ever done.

32 Comments

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OffBroadway

Victoria, BC

September 2004

OCT 03, 2007 12:30 AM

Still the best. Eat shit Courtney Love.

Nothingful

San Diego, CA

October 2004

OCT 03, 2007 12:54 AM

Yeah, she rules.
She rules.
She rules.

Gayballs

Seattle, WA

July 2005

OCT 03, 2007 02:23 AM

smokin

Kiora

SUICIDEGIRL

Sweden

OCT 03, 2007 03:16 AM

I loved it

Iseult

United Kingdom

September 2005

OCT 03, 2007 04:55 AM

I must have this album.

SivaDelFuego

Minneapolis, MN

January 2003

OCT 03, 2007 05:51 AM

I picked it up at a store last night in drizzly Stillwater, MN. (That was haunting enough.) But now I have a new favorite PJ song...

if To Bring You My Love's Femme Fatal (think, "Send His Love to Me") had passed and fallen into a Tim Burton claymation film about the undead, her siren song would be "Grow Grow Grow."

It's about the most haunting thing I've ever heard from her (or anyone for that matter) - even including "I Think I'm A Mother" and "Catherine." It seems to be more influenced by Danny Elfman than anyone. But with oh, so much more soul...

It's an album like nothing she's ever done before. Good for her moving to piano. Muscle memory has a way of keeping a guitar player in a creative cage.

Mysterious, Other-Worldly, Haunting, Heart-Wrenching, Brilliant, Polly Jean Harvey. I love her.

HannibalV

Downers Grove, IL

September 2007

OCT 03, 2007 06:32 AM

My taste for PJH records follows a very specific pattern: love one, can only sort of stomach the next, love the next, etc. Glad to say that (so far, after only 1.5 listens) White Chalk fals into the "Love it" category.

Saraphine

SUICIDEGIRL

Pennsylvania, USA

OCT 03, 2007 06:49 AM

I really want to hear this. I love her!!

shoegazerbrett

New York, NY

August 2007

OCT 03, 2007 07:57 AM

The new songs are amazing! Can't wait until the show next week

Sound

I'm lost

January 2004

OCT 03, 2007 08:05 AM

Gorgeous album. Short and sweet.

formerviking

Denver, PA

May 2006

OCT 03, 2007 09:58 AM

Listening to it right now . Very mellow & sweet sounding .

everthere

Belgium

June 2004

OCT 03, 2007 10:02 AM

Not the most accessible of her albums but it does reward your patience if you stick with it. This album is further proof of how she's a true artist and not an entrepreneur like so many of today's 'musicians'.