Maybe
it’s wrong to single out PJ Harvey as a female rocker, but there are so few,
and none like PJ Harvey. She’s got guts, but you’d never mistake her music as
anything else but female. It is this
distinction that gives her music a unique character. When she sings “lick my legs / I’m on fire / lick
my legs / of desire,” in the album’s title track, Rid of Me, it’s not
sexual--it’s threatening.
It’s
not just her lyrics, not just her voice that ventures from a whisper to
falsetto to raw-throated belting, it is also the drumming, off-kilter and often
surprising, and also the guitar playing that explodes at times. And still there is space in these songs, the
sound of an empty room, a feeling of agony and indecision.
Released
in 1993, Rid of Me was important to me for many reasons that can’t be
explained here. But no matter the
variety of memories associated with this album, it still stands on its own and
sounds damn good loud.
One of my favorite albums. When listening to this album I am never sure, for the most part, whether to laugh or be afraid, which is one of the hallmarks of early PJH. "no other way but cut off your legs," "Wash you breasts, I don't want to be unclean," the entirety of "Man-Size Sextet" etc.
ReplyDeletePs: I like your blog a lot, I enjoy your album write-ups.
Thanks for the comments. It is the power and the menace in her words and her voice that make her so remarkable.
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