can anyone tell me what pj harvey is up to?

And she will be on the fifth continent in January for a festival.
Plus At this time, no other live dates are planned for next year.

What's a Vincent Gallo? (not seriously)

Then again, I think my 2nd favorite PJ Harvey record (behind _Dry_) is that joint she recorded w/ John Parish, so I might be certifiable.

And it's too bad Dan won't be checking this thread anytime soon.

Paraphrasing a PJ interview when Stories came out:
Interviewer: This record seems to indicate that you're in a happy frame of mind now. Is this so?
PJ: The word "happy" is not in my vocabulary.

Seems to be a 50/50 split between those who love the record and those who hate it.

> Whilst no official announcements have been made - we hear that the new P J Harvey album can be expected this summer.
> Our sources also tell us that the album was written, performed and produced by Polly with Head & Polly recording & mixing it. Rob Ellis, a long-time collaborator of Polly's, played drums & percussion on the record.
>
> No news yet on an album title but we have managed get information on some of the track titles which include Who The Fuck?, Shame, The Life And Death of Mr. Badmouth, The Letter and The Pocket Knife amongst others.
> We've been told to expect more news shortly, so check back regularly for updates over the coming weeks.

pjharvey.net :

02.07.07

Well...we can confirm that there will be a new album from Polly this year...in fact September 24th is the actual date. We can also confirm that the album, produced by Polly, Flood & John Parish, will be titled White Chalk and features musical contributions from long time associate, Eric Drew Feldman, and also Jim White of the Dirty Three.
Polly is expected to preview some of the news songs, at her upcoming sold-out show, this coming Saturday in Manchester. We're expected more news over the coming weeks, so check back regularly.

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Chalk

whoa, good news!

I hope she has that muppet guitarist from the last touring band of hers put down.

It's funny that the thread gets all divided about Stories From The City etc. and then says nothing about the far duller album that came after it.

I haven't heard a PJ Harvey album since To Bring You My Love. Should I bother catching up?

of course! I was not crazy about Stories from the City.. but she has never made a bad album

I really liked Uh Huh Her

of course! I was not crazy about Uh Huh Her but she has never made a bad album

I really liked Stories from the City...

The new material sounds interesting so far, especially this: http://youtube.com/watch?v=AuuEFNrmpvk "Silence". Here's a link to an early review of "White Chalk" http://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/index.php?blog=6&p=376&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#more376 . The piano isn't the most familar instrument to Pj, & on one account I read a criticism of her playing being "chopsticks" like in nature, but the contrast with her higer register vocals transcends simplicity for me.

Hell yeah, that you tube clip was tanfastic! Something tells me she might have a hard time capturing that in the studio, though. I guess we'll see.

Here's another song from the new one, The Devil. I have a good feeling about this, even though Uh-Huh Her was kind of a dud.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Jk_GmlJxJTg&mode=related&search=

Stories From The City is my favorite record of hers. I don't get why so many people put it down.

I tried a few times to be friends with PJ Harvey on myspace and it says I need to enter her last name. I guess "Harvey" is somehow incorrect.

I saw her last summer and she was amazing, the new stuff all sounded great, and she did a lot of just banging a drum and singing. It was a bit Scout Niblett-ey.

Stories From The City is my favorite record of hers. I don't get why so many people put it down.

It's the worst one, with the worst songs. I think I loved almost every PJ Harvey song up to that point, including b-sides, but strongly disliked 75% of the songs on Stories. It was a shock. Probably I would have accepted it as a pretty decent record by anyone else... but I was shocked.

And those new songs (one listen -- I'm not gonna spoil it for myself): Silence - boring; The Devil - that's the stuff.

It's the worst one, with the worst songs.

If I ever go to a PJ Harvey party, remind me to stay away from this dude.

i sort of agree with the criticism of 'stories...'. half of it's good, but not fantastic, while the rest of the tracks lack her staple energy and intensity and aren't particularly interesting at all. falls away unflatteringly at the end too...

SFTCSFTS was the first PJ album I heard properly and at the time I absolutely adored it - it made me rush out the next day and buy Rid Of Me, To Bring You My Love and Is This Desire, bits of each of which I liked, but felt nowhere near as strongly about.

However, in light of my compression fetish, I listened to SFTCSFTS the other day, and while I still liked the melodies and the tunes, the sound quality of it was absolutely horrendous on a lot of songs, and I couldn't make it all the way through. It is very flat, very bright, very ill-defined, very inyourface, ESPECIALLY compared to Rid Of Me, and I can totally see why that might make people hate it, even if that's not their conscious reason. It is slick as fuck, production wise, and the songs suffer from it.

This Is Love, Big Exit, This Mess We're In, Good Fortune.. these are not among the worst PJ songs, just fyi. "This Is Love" might be my favorite track of hers. And I think the production totally compliments the songs.

those songs are fine. and 'a place called home' tops them all in my view. it's just that the record generally seems really soulless. she's even sounding over-earnest or something - very uncharacteristic for her.

I'm more of an "Is This Desire?" and "Dry" guy.

"Stories..." is fucking awful. I love "Horses in my Dreams," though.

The new stuff sounds strangely promising.

Stories From the City is very different from other PJ Harvey albums. A comment like "it has the worst songs" is absurd from the point of view of people who actually like rock and roll songwriting in the traditional, Chuck Berry-Beatles-Stones kind of way: it clearly, unambiguously has the best lyrics, the truest structures, the BEST songs. Point, is, that isn't what people like about Dry or Rid of Me or especially To Bring You My Love, so if you love those albums it's not surprising you'd miss this. SFTC is less intense, less overtly sexual, less impassioned, more deliberate and calm and . . . dare I say it, in this context? Happy. Her bad fortune really does sound like it's been slipping away.

A comment like "it has the worst songs" is absurd from the point of view of people who actually like rock and roll songwriting in the traditional, Chuck Berry-Beatles-Stones kind of way: it clearly, unambiguously has the best lyrics, the truest structures, the BEST songs.

Here's Pj Harvey's new single: http://blog.thesyn.com.s17153.gridserver.com/?p=1553
It's a lot more subtle and short than I expected, on repeated listening I'm finding her vocal tone effective for the context of the song.

Just heard it for the first time last night and it literally gave me nightmares. This is one of her best songs. If White Chalk is all this good, it'll be the album of the year.

the album is pretty great.

I've only heard "Ether," and while I liked it, there wasn't enough there to make me super-excited about the album.

on the cover of The Wire this month...

okay, this is pretty amazing. and that final track... wow²

This album is seriously great -- I need to hear it a couple more times to offer any substantial thoughts.

Ditto.