PJ Harvey
Uh Huh Her

THE REVIEW

PJ Harvey deserves respect.
I had read some incredibly pathetic things about her on this site that made me indignantly upset! (...I'll come back to this later)

PJ deserves respect, even after this album of hers with the unpronounceable title; "Uh Huh Her".

Listening to the first notes, one is tempted to check the cover again to ensure the album was released in 2004 and not in 1993, when PJ collaborated with Steve Albini on the superb "Rid Of Me".
The experiments from "Is This Desire?" seem distant.
Even the stupendous "Stories..." seems quite different from this release.
The sound here is raw, almost like a demo.
Nothing is pre-recorded, sampled, reproduced. Everything is played and captured on tape directly.

Emotions caught on the fly like butterflies caught in a collector's net and with the same rawness (or cruelty?) pinned through with a needle and stamped in the album.

"I'd jump for you into the fire
I'd jump for you into the flame
Tried to go forward with my life
I just feel shame, shame, shame
Shame, shame, shame
Shame is the shadow of love"
(Excerpt from "Shame")

What appears is a darker, more introverted Polly Jean Harvey, at times depressive and obsessive.
Raw, direct, with no half-measures.

"With no neurosis
No psychosis
No psychoanalysis
And no sadness
I'll pick up the pieces
I'll carry on somehow
Tape the broken parts together
And limp this love around"
(from "The Darker Days Of Me And Him")

The topics that plague PJ's mind are almost all centered on romantic relationships, this eternal dialogue between me (misunderstood) and him (bastard!).
A painful theme, addressed with pride and determination.

PJ's voice of despair rests on melodies as rough as sandpaper, distorted guitars and basses make your stereo speakers resonate.
There are two strange things on the album, like the instrumental "The End" and the hidden track that I later discovered is called "Seagull," which is nothing more than the noise of seagulls at the harbor.
The single "The Letter" is also nice (of which there's a successful low fi style video circulating on MTV Brand New recently) and the overwhelming "Cat On The Wall".

In the artist's musical journey, this represents a break from the recent past, almost a return to the origins.
The album is perhaps a bit timeless and at the same time dated.
It doesn't fully convince, but it fascinates and moves.
And perhaps this is precisely what one expects from an album.

"There's another who looks from behind your eyes
I learn from you how to hide
From the desperate kingdom of love"

P.S.:
Regarding the pathetic things read on the site, I was referring to the reviews of the HJF of Imola 2004.
No offense to the two reviewers, but since I missed the event, I at least wanted to know what she played and how.
Not the color of her shoes and how she moved on stage...