PJ Harvey
Is This Desire?

Polly Jean released this album in 1998, after "To Bring You My Love," which was too complex to be fully appreciated, and "Dance Hall at Louse Point," where the noteworthy elements are slightly lacking (I mention "Heela" and "That Was My Veil"), compared to what PJ has accustomed us to. Therefore, a new album was expected to be precious in every point and, in a way, to be a break from previous works. The result was an album in which, as we know, PJ skillfully handled electronic contamination, visibly in tracks like "The Wind," "Electric Light," or "No Girl So Sweet."

From a content point of view, however, it is a CD whose structure could be defined as 'episodic' (following the example of the drama 'The Trojan Women' by Euripides, forgive my 'classical' digression): meaning that it is articulated in separate scenes, that is, in well-defined and independent stories. And already the first scene, the first track, forcibly drags us into this concept: in "Angelene" PJ offers us a picture of radiant intensity: it speaks of a woman whose only sin is to love for money (if you know what I mean), as a verse of the song says. The theme might be trivial, but the way the author presents it to us is anything but trivial. In the end, the protagonist gives way to the hope of changing her existence and being loved finally in a full and sincere way ("But there'll be one who will collect my soul, and come to me"); thus it is impossible not to be emotionally moved by these sweet and calm tones in describing such a scandalous condition. The next track is "The Sky Lit Up," and here too we are offered, even if with diametrically opposite tones, a picture of potent intensity on a sensory level ("The sky lit up, and I'm lighter than I've ever been"). To cut it short, the protagonist is out in the city and absorbs all the air and atmosphere sensed around her and feels luminous, radiant, as she is struck by a storm of overwhelming and immediate emotions, all combined with a compelling rhythmic pace until the final explosion. It is noteworthy that PJ manages to condense this emotional multiplicity into a track of not even 2 minutes (!).

The album then continues with other stories and other characters, like Catherine, Elise, and Joe (strange that this last name appears here in two songs and gives the title to a song from the "Dry" album; perhaps it is a name particularly dear to PJ's pen...).

In conclusion, this is PJ Harvey's best album, not only for the remarkable creativity and versatility she demonstrated in the sound, but also for her fertile textual composition. In short, it is not music, but a true musical anabasis.