PJ Harvey

[Fabulyss]

I'll be honest with you, I really really want to like PJ Harvey but I never end up enjoying any of her music. It's all so early 90s/grungey/angsty. And I'm a big fan of many of her influences (Beefheart, Howlin Wolf, etc).

 

[Perickles]

^White chalk wasn't from 90's and it was a great album one of my favorite of her by far. And the last album is so good also. I don't think she is an old fashioned musician, she has evolutionated fantastically

 

[Scott]

i don't agree with that assessment either. i certainly would never deem 'stories','white chalk' and this new one as angst-laden or grungy. in fact,i think since 'is this desire?' she's continued to lay new grounds as an artist. utilising many elements that early 90's rocker may not have employed (like the autoharp,the piano--a broken one at that) and seeking out inspiration one may not expect. this new album,particularly,shows how much she's matured and grown confident as a songwriter.

 

[Scott]

 

[Scott]

btw,here's the arte performance....it just sounds even better in more intimate surroundings.

http://liveweb.arte.tv/fr/video/PJ_Harvey_a_la_Maroquinerie/

 

[Not Plain Jane]

Thanks for all those posts/vids Scott! Love PJ and was sad I couldn't catch her last live stream night. Watched the Strokes set but had to do some late night work after. Also agreed with your assessment about the timing of her and Portishead's Coachella sets, though that festival sure attracts good acts.

 

[Scott]

absolutely it does. i dunno what it is but it used to be these festivals were venues for independent artists to have the spotlight. i suppose money has become a real factor and i understand that but the spirit isn't the same. PJ Harvey a few years ago would have truly been the real closing headliner,as somebody actually held up during her performance. i just think given her longevity and her stature in music,it was hugely disrespectful. i mean it's like putting somebody like bjork on in between kings of leon and lady gaga. it just doesn't look right at all because she's a headliner as well.

 

[Chaky]

Interview with Polly Jean in today's Observer.

She says Stories From The City, her most commercially successful album, is also her least favourite.

 

[Scott]

i have to say i'm not terribly surprised by that revelation. i've heard a lot of stuff during the process of making that album in which she wasn't ultimately that satisfied with. and when i listen back in retrospect,there are some elements you feel don't quite mesh with PJ's more complex and really uncompromising spirit. and there are some highly poignant tracks though but maybe not as complete as she would have preferred. there was also that issue with the cover art....that overly glammy trendy image of her that seemed to counter everything we had come to know of PJ which come to find out was not the image they had intended to use. but execs wanted one which was more commercially viable. in fact the image they wanted was one of her shot in her sun drenched lounge looking very stoic and natural with her hair in pig-tails and wearing a native american neck-piece. it was a very haunting image.

 

[Scott]

Congrats to Polly Jean on winning the Mercury Prize for 2011!!! despite being up against the likes of james blake,the more popular adele and elbow.....they say PJ was an overwhelming shoe-in pick and i would agree. this album was probably the most profound of all of those.

this win also makes her the winningest artist outside radiohead in the prize's history.

PJ Harvey has won this year's Barclaycard Mercury Prize.

The winner was announced this evening (September 6) at a ceremony at the Grosvenor Hotel in London. This was the first time in the competition's history that every one of the nominated artists was scheduled to perform at the ceremony itself, although Adele had to pull out due to illness.

Harvey accepted the award and £20,000 cash prize with a straightforward, composed speech.

"First of all I'd like to say thank you very much for this award, and the recognition of my work on this album," she said.

Harvey, the award's first two-time winner, also made reference to her previous win, which famously took place on September 11, 2001, an event of course overshadowed by the terrorist attacks in the United States.

It's nice to actually be here. I was in in Washington, DC, watching the Pentagon burning from my hotel window, so it's good to be here. So much has happened since then. This album took me a long time write. It was very important to me, I wanted to make something that was meaningful not just for myself but for other people, hopefully to make something that would last.

Harvey went on to thank "the people that have supported her throughout her career": her manager, her record company Island, agents and "those who helped me make 'Let England Shake'".

The ceremony was broadcast on BBC Two and was hosted by Jools Holland.

The Barclaycard Mercury Prize was won in 2010 by The xx for their self-titled debut album.

The full list of nominees was:

Anna Calvi - 'Anna Calvi'
Elbow - 'Build A Rocket Boys!'
James Blake - 'James Blake'
Katy B - 'On A Mission'
Metronomy - 'The English Riviera'
Tinie Tempah - 'Disc-Overy'
PJ Harvey - 'Let England Shake'
Gwilym Simcock - 'Good Days At Schloss Elmau'
Everything Everything - 'Man Alive'
Ghostpoet - 'Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam'
King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - 'Diamond Mine'
Adele - '21'

*nme.com

 

[AD011620]

I really wanted Anna to win but I adore PJ so I am really happy! even though I like her new album I still believe it does not come close to The Stories from the City...

 

[milourh]

Thank you for the article. She totally deserves the prize, 'Let England Shake' is a masterpiece because it is SO consistent, especially the first half IMO. And I must say I like it better than Radiohead's 'The King of Limbs' [Run and hide...]

 

[LolaSvelt]

Very glad she won. I was rooting for her. There were a few others I was also rooting for, but I gave PJ the edge because it's a very meaningful album.

 

[Chaky]

I watched the Mercury Prize on TV and was so glad to see Polly Jean win. The album really is wonderful and I keep revisiting it. I really like Anna Calvi's as well and possibly she could have done with the exposure a bit more than PJ but with a ten year gap between winning I suppose it does show just what consistent quality her output has been.

 

[Fabulyss]

I'll be honest with you, I really really want to like PJ Harvey but I never end up enjoying any of her music. It's all so early 90s/grungey/angsty. And I'm a big fan of many of her influences (Beefheart, Howlin Wolf, etc).

Wow, I want to sincerely apologize for this statement. I listened to her music more and more (ALL of her albums) and I've seen the light! I now believe she's one of the biggest geniuses in music...certainly the smartest, most talented female musician. She's so unbelievably versatile with each album.

 

[Scott]

new track for the charity reprieve which is working to free british citizens who have ultimately been found not guilty yet still remain imprisoned at guantanamo bay. this one specifically for shaker aamer,who in 2007 was cleared for release but still remains at guantanamo.

https://soundcloud.com/reprieve/pj-harvey_shaker-aamer

and the track is free for download.

 

[Scott]

PJ Harvey is recording her ninth studio album as an exhibition within the Inland Revenue’s former staff gymnasium and rifle range at Somerset House, London,
From Jan 16th visitors will see and hear PJ Harvey, her guest musicians, recording engineers, and producers Flood and John Parish in a glazed architecturally-designed studio. For forty-five minutes at a time, groups of people will experience the crafting of a record, which could be anything from laying down a bass drum track, to discussions, improvisation, through to full performances of new songs.
One-way glass and sound proofing ensure that the musicians can concentrate on their work, but the space and the people who move through it will help to create both the process and presentation of this project.
The exhibition is commissioned and produced by ARTANGEL and Somerset House.

*somersethouse.org.uk via facebook.com/pjharvey

really looking forward to hearing some new tunes from polly jean and once again she defies the shallowness of the status quo doing something totally out of the box.

 

[Not Plain Jane]

amazing idea; wish i could see it, but at least we'll have new PJ tunes!!

 

[Scott]

wish they could have it streamed live through the duration of the exhibition for those of us not in london could have a gander?

 

[Not Plain Jane]

here's a write up on the public recording / installation…

http://flavorwire.com/newswire/pj-h...dium=socialflow&utm_campaign=FlavorwireSocial