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Rating: I don't think I'm one of the few who have been enchanted by an artist-woman like Polly Jean Harvey. A difficult and irregular beauty, fragile and impetuous person. I admit it, as a listener, it's what I've waited for years, convinced that an independent, determined, refined girl like her would eventually arrive. Often compared to another illustrious predecessor, the seminal Patti Smith, PJ Harvey actually departs significantly from that valid model. She too is a pure female irreversibly devoted to rock, emerged as the leader of a powerful power-trio in her name and unanimously imposed herself with the last episode of an exhilarating trilogy of alternative rock (the bestseller "To Bring You My Love", 1995), but she has a personality that would be a pity of superficiality to underestimate as a - albeit illustrious - disciple. To Polly Jean, the godmother of "Horses" has left only the raven hair, the overflowing magnetism, and a strongly determined character. But it's a different talent, not necessarily superior or inferior. The voice is similar but more versatile, increasingly challenged over the years by tonal exhibitions, between whispers, gasping sighs, desperate cries, powerful vocals ready to support entire songs alone.
We must understand that we are not facing a secure, balanced, linear woman, perhaps respectful of more traditional rock and desirous of fitting into some musical trend or a significant era: there is no time to think about the world's problems, to the social sensitization of an audience. Inner problems overwhelm, absorb and rejuvenate the essence of this woman, consumed by love in all its forms. Sentiments command the will. And the song, the melody, the rhythm, everything is a reflection of the passions that stir at the heart's core. Polly is someone who lives her life completely, drinks it with incredible greed, without holding back. It's the vision of the universe as a continuous fluid, which alone makes life exist, that can flow irrationally more towards happiness or bitterness. But in these hard, explicit yet poetic tales, every aspect of reality presents two faces. There is never someone who can do good without hurting you or vice versa. It's a sadomasochistic torment, of those who let themselves be used, to then use with more strength. There is no ugly or beautiful, good or bad; everything is worth experiencing, even the most dangerous, with the risk of self-destruction (potentially becoming anorexic and a drug addict) always just around the corner.
The first bang, the revelation, was "Dry", a gem that flies beyond the newborn grunge, beyond the future inflated and immediately compared Liz Phair or Alanis Morissette. A cycle of emotions outside the then-prevailing schemes. If we want, Dry is one of the first fruits of the 1991 revolution, almost the female response to "Nevermind". Dirty and sick acoustic ballads, with cellos and guitars as thick as in "Plants And Rags", mountain-splitting and overly sensual anthems like "Victory", post-new wave nightmares like "Fountain", almost a stripped-down Smithian "Lullaby," even more claustrophobic, spectral. The two-voice unleashed punk of "Sheela-Na-Gig", the delirium of a love triangle in the hard-blues of "Oh My Lover", each room becomes a surprise of lips drawing pleasures with ruby-colored lipsticks, feet to be licked in submission, broken nails, woods to spend entire nights of mysticism and pleasure. The roots of rock are indeed "dried" ("Dry"), sterilized, and filled again with humors, but belonging exclusively to the protagonist, ready to be opened and splashed on the cover almost like in the Bowiesque “Lodger”. The sound is very accurate, prepared to evoke tremors, annoying buzzes, while Polly confesses her fears to you, what drives her crazy in bed, the visions she perceives in states of wobbly panic trance, where she makes love to trees and dances with the sun, with witches, and sniffs blood, scents of men asked to be everything, and even more. And us? We have been waiting for nothing else.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Oh My Lover (04:02)
Oh my lover
Don't you know it's alright ?
You can love her
You can love me at the same time
Much to discover
I know you don't have the time but
Oh my lover
Don't you know it's alright ?
Oh my sweet thing
Oh my honey thighs
Give me your troubles
I'll keep them with mine
Take at your leisure
Take whatever you can find but
Oh my sweet thing
Don't you know it's alright ?
It's alright
It's alright
There's no time
So it's alrigh-igh-ight
What's that color
Forming around your eyes
Once my lover
Tell me that it's alright
Just another
Before you go...go away
Oh my lover
Why don't you just say my name ?
And it's alright
Say it's alright
There's no time
02 O Stella (02:30)
Stella marie you're my star
Stella marie you're my star
Stand on ground look up at her
Just hanging in gold stone
Just hanging there face froze
But I think I see her smiling
Think I see her smiling
Think I see her smiling
Think I see her smiling
Go, go, go
Go go
Stella marie you're my star
In your blue blue tavern
You'll light my lantern
O stella's large
*Pink on her face
*It's glowing this place
A place for heroes only
Place for heroes only
Place for heroes only
Place for heroes only
Go, go, go
Go go go go
Stella marie you're my star
I pin you to my chest
Sell you to the rest
I kiss her gown
Send those angels down to woo me now
I think I see her smiling
Think I see her smiling
Think I see her smiling
Think I see her smiling
Go, go, go
Go go
Go, go, go
Go go
Go, go, go
Go go
03 Dress (03:18)
Put on that dress
I'm going out dancing
Starting off red
Gleam and sparkling he'll see me
Music play make me dreamy for dancing
Must be a way that I can dress to please him
It's hard to walk and the dress is not easy
I'm swinging over like a heavy loaded fruit tree
If you put it on
If you put it on
If you put it on
If you put it on
It's sad to see
Lonely or this lonely
Close up my eyes
Dreamy dreamy music make it be alright
Music play make it good for romancing
Must be a way I can dress to please him
Swing and sway everything will be alright
But he's feeling so down tight tonight
If you put it on
If you put it on
If you put it on
If you put it on
You pretty thing
My man says
But I bought you beautiful dresses
You pretty thing
My man says
But I bought you beautiful dresses
Filthy type your dress is filthy
I'm falling flat and my arms are empty
Get away better get it out of this room
A fallen woman in dancing costume
If you put it on X8
04 Victory (03:15)
I stumble in and in
You fit me with those angel wings
Set me goal
Set me high
Set it up I'm in the sky
The storm is gone
(and the storm is gone)
And the temperature's high
(and the temperature's high)
And Delilah is dining
(and Delilah is dining)
At my table
Tell any how how how
How lucky we are
Angel at my table
God in my car
Get it at sea
Take a ship
I'd christen her "Victory"
She'd make it
Vic-to-ry, Vic-to-ry
Come on boys
Let's push it hard
You bump down, push your motor car
Come on boys
You've done us proud
You sweat 'til I'll mop it right off your brow
Vic-to-ry, Vic-to-ry
Vic-to-ry, Vic-to-ry
'Til the storm is gone
('til the storm is gone)
And the temperature's high
(and the temperature's high)
And delilah is dining
(and delilah is dining)
At my table
'Til the storm is gone
('til the storm is gone)
And the temperature's high
(and the temperature's high)
And delilah is dining
(and delilah is dining)
At my table
Hey
06 Sheela-Na-Gig (03:10)
I've been trying to show you over and over
Look at these my child-bearing hips
Look at these my ruby red ruby lips
Look at these my work strong arms and
You've got to see my bottle full of charm
I lay it all at your feet
You turn around and say back to me
He said
Sheela-na-gig, sheela-na-gig
You exhibitionist
Sheela-na-gig, sheela-na-gig
You exhibitionist
Gonna wash that man right out of my head
*Just like the first time he said he didn't care
Gonna wash that man right out of my hair
Heard it before, no more
Gonna wash that man right out of my head
Turn the corner another one there
Gonna wash that man right out of my head
Heard it before
He said
Sheela-na-gig, sheela-na-gig
You exhibitionist
Sheela-na-gig, sheela-na-gig
You exhibitionist
Put money in your idle hole
Put money in your idle hole
Gonna wash that man right out of my head
Just like the first time he said he didn't care
Gonna wash that man right out of my head
Heard it before, no more
Gonna take my hips to a man who cares
Turn the corner another one there
Gonna take my hips to a man who cares
Heard it before
He said
Sheela-na-gig, sheela-na-gig
You exhibitionist
Sheela-na-gig, sheela-na-gig
You exhibitionist
Put money in your idle hole
Put money in your idle hole
He said "wash your breasts, I don't want to be unclean"
He said "please take those dirty pillows away from me"
He said "wash your breasts, I don't want to be unclean"
He said "please take those dirty pillows away from me"
He said "wash your breasts, I don't want to be unclean"
He said "please take those dirty pillows away from me"
He said "wash your breasts, I don't want to be unclean"
He said "please take those dirty pillows away from me"
07 Hair (03:47)
Samson, the strength
That's in, your arms
Oh to be, your stunning
Bride
Samson, your hair
Glistening, like sun
Oh would, that it
Were mine
Samson, your hair
That's in, my hands
I'll keep it safe
You're mine, you're mine
He said wait, said wait
Delilah my babe, Delilah my babe
Said wait, said wait
Delilah my babe, Delilah my babe
Said wait, said wait
Delilah my babe
You lied in my face
You cut off my hair
You lied in my bed
Samson, your stay
With your 'lilah
I'll hold you in
My hands
Yeah
Your hair
Restrain
My man
My man
He said wait, said wait
Delilah my babe, Delilah my babe
Said wait, said wait
Delilah my babe, Delilah my babe
He said wait, said wait
Delilah my babe, Delilah my babe
Said wait, said wait
Delilah my babe
You lied in my face
You cut off my hair
You lied in my bed
08 Joe (02:33)
Joe will you be my buddy please
Stay with me when I fall and die
Always thought you'd come rushing in
Clear the shit out of my eye
Joe will you be my buddy please
Lay my enemies out in lines
Come in close now I'll wash your feet
With my hair I'll mop them dry
With my hair I'll mop them dry
Something over there I do not like
There's no use to wondering
Joe will you be my buddy please
In this hell and day long time
When I'm trusting my hated tree
Cut me down with your silver knife
Cut me down with your silver knife
Something over there I do not like
There's no use to wondering
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