P.J. Harvey --- Is This Desire?

Oh Polly Jean, if only your contemporaries (notice I didn't say 'peers') could learn from you. Most of your once-talented equals have fallen further and further down the spiral of insignifigance (Hello Courtney! Hello Liz!), and you just stand their, unwavering in quality.

Even if you don't like all of her work, you've gotta admit that this lady sings to the beat of her own drummer. While Mariah and Madonna exploited sex on top of synth beats, PJ was playing her Telecaster in Steve Albini's great north, making the best fem-rage (what a gross term!) slab o' tape EVER. While Alanis was moaning about ex-"Full House" personalities inarticulately, PJ was prancing around stage in false eyelashes and bemoaning babies left on the river banks with more authenticity and soul than fellow Brit Eric Clapton could ever wretch from the corpses of a thousand dead Delta riverbanks. Gwen Stefani was lookin' semi-glam, so Ms Harvey threw her audience a curveball with the elegant/somber/basic "Dance Hall At Louse Point" with John Parish. And now that faux-elegant female singers are all the rage (i.e., Jewel = $$$$), PJ Harvey has tackled her most un-fashionable genre yet: rock and roll.

I am arguing that this is her first attempt at rock and roll because "Rid Of Me" and "Dry" were more cathartic excercises in post-punk than anything else. "Is This Desire?" isn't rock and roll like Sheryl Crow (who wrote THAT stupid review? PJH has as much in common with Sheryl Crow as I do with Kevin J Anderson). It's Rock and Roll like Nick Cave at his best. I know, I know, the Nick Cave similes are really really really tired, but he seems to be the only one to have tackled similar ground in a similar manner. "Is This Desire?" is a very very good record. The only fault I can really find with it is the over-reliance on hip-hop type drums (I really don't think those are samples or loops, though). Listening to this record makes me realize HOW BAD everything on the radio is. She takes everything much, much further than anyone else in her position would dare to. "My Beautiful Leah" feature the most sickeningly distorted bassline I've ever heard. It's truly something that has to be heard to be believed. And "The Sky Lit Up" reminds me of Spacemen 3 for some reason (don't ask...). The only parts of the record that fall flat are the numbers that are too piano-reliant, like portions of "Angelene".

And if you need any other reason to buy this record, "The Wind" features a portion of the score of "Planet Of The Apes". I mean, that alone is worth $11. --- mike (Island Records)
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Michael Keegan
2.16.1999