This is just a hunch. I totally believe Polly Jean Harvey has one more punk blues rock record in her. I know that she does not want to repeat herself and I do not blame her. After all, Polly Jean Harvey is an artist. She can totally bring something different within the style without sounding like Rid Of Me, Dry, Missed, Oh My Lover, etc.

I have been listening to I Inside The Old Year Dying and I think it is a great one. I also feel that there will be a time where people ought to see a true artist rocking out in a different way in her mid fifties. I am not talking about wearing unflattering clothes or trying to yell out the lyrics like she once did. Just a hunch.

Well, what I like about her is that she's been consistently unpredictable, so your wish is totally plausible and legit. But in my opinion she's never lost her edge: I still feel it in her voice, her way of phrasing, in the sounds she chooses as well as in her boldness and will to experiment. Even if we consider her last two albums, there are powerful songs that still show her rock/punk/blues side, and on a sonic level they verge on the dirty, raw and bombastic. I agree there's probably not the same palpable tension of ROM (how could anyone replicate that?), but in my opinion she actually has been already doing what you long for - that is, rocking out in a hundred different ways.

I guess my point is not trying to say I agree or disagree with you, because I love her edgy side and I hope she never loses it, but I'm wondering: don't you think she's already been doing that, all in all? And if you don't, what do you think is missing in her music at the moment to fullfill your wish for a more punk/blues/rock record? Maybe just a higher number of noisy songs and less low-key ones?

Sorry for the long reply, and I hope I don't come across as spiteful, I'm just genuinely curious because this topic seems to come up a lot among her listeners.

No you did not come off as spiteful at all. I really appreciate your comments.

I truly love the fact that PJ Harvey is an artist who does not repeat herself. Every artist should grow and evolve, period. I was just saying as much as she has been taking her music into different directions from the ethereal stuff with White Chalk. The folky and social commentary stuff with Let England Shake and the Hope Six Demolition Project. At last but not least to the surrealistic ambient journey with I Inside the Old Year Dying.

It would be nice for Polly Jean Harvey to come out with a more punk/blues/rock album that it doesn't have to be angry songs but it can be something about getting older, being a middle aged woman, etc.

Oh, I see, and it does seem plausible in fact, especially given the themes of her last album. I'm sure she has the skills, sensitivity and good/bad taste to do that in a classy and interesting way.

On my part, the eventual genre of a new album wouldn't really make a difference, as long as the usual PJ's magic works and the album is good.
I love the "edgier" Polly of the past, i will for sure listen to (for ex.) Uh Huh Her until the my very last day, but i really don't mind new things, 'cause experimenting is the essence of PJ Harvey, and all in all she nailed it every single time. on the "getting older" topic, i'm not amused by it; yes she entered the latter half of her life, but... she's still 54, not 84! her music career is far from over and there are a plethora of new topics to explore beside the "growing old" one . She doesn't look like in her last days at all, quite the contrary! she seems born-anew, her persona squirts of vitality, i can't wait to discover her new findings in music and human emotions.

i refuse to think of a PJ Harvey cowed by age, obsessed with the coming of her Fatal Date. She herself has described us her renewed passion, in countless interviews...

we are just in the beginning.




P.S. re-reading my comment, i have probably gone off-topic, but i think my points are still valid enough to be published.

I don't doubt that at all. Polly Jean Harvey has always been full of surprises.

I feel like this board is dying from lack of participation.

Is anyone home?

I look in most days but I only post if I have something new to offer (except for this one!)

Hope 6 is quite blues rock. Not sure how popular it is around here due to its lyrics.