Is This Desire?

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Is This Desire? was a thorny, troubled album, made at a time when worrying rumours circulated about Harvey’s mental health. Angelene doesn’t sound like the work of someone in a good place, but there’s a hint of optimism – “I’ve heard there’s joy untold” – mirrored by a chorus delightfully at odds with the mood of brooding weariness. 7. The Desperate Kingdom of Love (2004) With PJ Harvey's tenth album on the horizon, Rough Trade East's Amelie Grice (a musician herself in Skin and Blister) examines her long-lasting fascination with Harvey's idiosyncratic discography and the impact she has made as one of Britain's most inspiring female artists.

a b Weingarten, Marc (2 October 1998). "Is This Desire?". Entertainment Weekly. No.452. p.74. Archived from the original on 17 March 2015 . Retrieved 21 February 2009. As ferocious screw-you statements of unbiddable artistic independence go, Harvey’s major label debut takes some beating. Which brings us to Rub Til It Bleeds: five crawling, anxiety-inducing minutes during which Harvey offers to – and let us not mince words here – wank someone off so violently she draws blood. See you on Top of the Pops! 19. Reeling (1993) Woodhouse, Alan (12 September 2005). "PJ Harvey: London Shepherd's Bush Empire". NME . Retrieved 22 December 2015. I was doing a lot of emotional work [when she began studio sessions in 1997],” she shared on an interview disc that accompanied Desire. Her self-reflection reached the point where she had to abandon the sessions for a while: “I just wanted to stop, and start looking at my life as Polly, rather than my life as a songwriter.” By the time recording resumed in spring 1998, she’d devised a way to convey “life as Polly” without the danger of completely exposing herself.RPM Alternative 30 – November 2, 1998" (PDF). RPM. Library and Archives Canada . Retrieved 23 June 2012. Harvey spoke about the making of the album in an interview with Filter magazine in 2004, indicating it was the project of which, to date, she was proudest. "Again working with Flood, again trying to find new ground, but a particularly difficult time in my life. So, it was a very, very difficult, difficult record to make and still one I find very difficult to listen to, but probably my favorite record that I've made because it had a lot of guts. I mean, I was making extremely difficult music, experimenting with techniques I hadn't used before and not really caring what other people thought about it. I'm quite proud of that one." She also told The Telegraph, "I do think Is This Desire? is the best record I ever made—maybe ever will make—and I feel that that was probably the highlight of my career. I gave 100 per cent of myself to that record. Maybe that was detrimental to my health at the same time." Thompson, Stephen (29 March 2002). "PJ Harvey: Is This Desire?". The A.V. Club . Retrieved 22 December 2015. it was the first time I was listening to a woman sing about being imperfect as well as many of the uncomfortable experiences women face. This was a huge change from the more polished pop I was used to."

Vowell, Sarah (November 1998). "PJ Harvey: Is This Desire?". Spin. 14 (11): 138 . Retrieved 21 October 2011. And essentially, this is why I rank this album higher than any of her preceding or subsequent ones; there are just too many emotional stories and secrets waiting to be unraveled, all of which incredibly significant in their individual compelling ways, and in some ways, even entwined. With the release of Is This Desire?, Harvey too could count herself among those women. The album didn’t just open her up to new musical vistas — it helped her figure out how to live and be comfortable in her own skin. “You know, I’m 28; it won’t be long til I’m 30,” she said on the Is This Desire? interview disc. “And then you start thinking, ‘What is life all about?’ And so then you start doing a bit of digging around.” Leah” proved a turning point. She began therapy while continuing to work on the record, and her growing understanding of herself crept onto Is This Desire?. She composed on a keyboard rather than her usual guitar, which affected her process: hunched over a small portable keyboard, she found herself writing “more thoughtfully.”In retrospect, it seems faintly amazing that To Bring You My Love was a commercial breakthrough: admittedly less confrontational than Rid of Me, it was still deeply uneasy listening, as evidenced by The Dancer, a stunning exercise in trembling tension, filled with dark religious imagery and references to opera. A love song, no less. 23. You Said Something (2000) Christgau, Robert (15 December 1998). "Consumer Guide". The Village Voice . Retrieved 15 November 2011.

Fowler, Shan. "PJ Harvey: Is This Desire?". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 14 October 2000 . Retrieved 27 June 2016.Is This Desire? is pure beauty in every sense of the word. It gives me the goosebumps because we've all asked ourselves the same question or felt the same way, at some point in time. There's something seriously haunting about PJ's voice here too (the high and low notes, the way she grinds down on some verses) and the melodramatic undertoned music that harmonizes the song in such a magnificent and scenic way. The way it builds up, the whole story unraveling, the climax, giving into desire and lust...it's a piece of brilliance that a lot of people will just disregard as another song, but if they took the time to appreciate every word and guitar chord, I've no doubt it will shake them too. Harvey was at pains to suggest that Stories From the City … was not her “New York album”. For all its geographical references to Manhattan, You Said Something sounds weirdly British – there is a distinctly folky lilt to the guitars – making it the perfect summation of the album’s Englishwoman-abroad theme. 22. A Perfect Day Elise (1998) She went into therapy and, at some point, also moved into the basement flat of a house owned by her bandmate and collaborator John Parish, and video and art director Maria Mochnacz. The gesture represented more than just goodwill: “They basically saved me,” Harvey admitted to The Observer. “I needed to be rescued, and I was.” She recalled writing songs for Is This Desire? in this subterranean space, which was dark and cloistered, and focused on the demos her flatmates liked the most. No wonder Harvey’s debut album had such an impact: no one else in 1992 was writing songs quite like Sheela Na Gig, a ferociously eloquent assault on the male gaze and misogyny with the image of a grotesque medieval architectural depiction of female genitalia at its centre. 4. Good Fortune (2000)