more from Sharon van Etten -
Essential Albums - Dry
http://www.chartattack.com/features/201 ... -classics/It’s the obvious influence, I guess. But she’s always dancing to her own way and from record to record she always changes. The song “Water” is still the soundtrack to my life. That build getting released and exploding when she gets to the chorus...it’s always gratifying. It’s one that I keep turning back to.
The one that I listen to that was my intro to PJ Harvey was Rid of Me.
PJ Harvey - Rid of Me (4-track Demos)
I heard the demos first and hearing the rawness of them and then hearing it interpreted as a band always intrigued me, when I was still solo and thinking about getting a band together one day. You could still pull off your own sound while having other people help you flesh it out. [It’s] really working with people that understand your music, understand how it is to be a singer and that you’re to hang back and show restraint while also encouraging me to where I’m never buried, but the band behind me is pushing me to rock out or let go, [and] letting go with me. There’s no imbalance there. You don’t want to work with people who don’t get you, and I’ve been lucky enough to be surrounded by people who do.
Angus Andrew of Liars
http://thequietus.com/articles/15020-li ... ms?page=11PJ Harvey - Is This Desire?
Is This Desire? exemplifies for me some of the things I admire the most about music and the artists who make it. PJ Harvey fearlessly pushes the boundaries of what she had, up until this point, been known for. Where before she'd garnered acclaim for her kind of tough guitar-driven rock she now set that aside and completely opened up to an entirely different palette of sounds and moods. Of course I'm a huge fan of To Bring You My Love but somehow Is This Desire? remains just as powerful, yet feels so completely gut-wrenchingly sensitive. I had already admired the incredible production of her work with Flood on To Bring You My Love - particularly the bass sounds, but Is This Desire? kind of kicked this into overdrive. I distinctly remember turning to someone when listening to the track 'My Beautiful Leah' and asking, "How on earth do I make that sound?". It's really the first time I can remember as a musician wanting to try and exactly emulate a sound I heard on a record. Interestingly, to this day I don't think I've ever been able to achieve that sound. It might actually require calling up Mick Harvey, John Parish or some of the other great players on this album and begging them for the real scoop.
Beyond mere bass sounds the album makes use of drum machines, strings and keys in such a kind of limitless investigation of possibilities. It really feels like someone exploring their sonic potential by utilising the courage of experimentation. I've remained a staunch supporter of PJ Harvey and though I won't say with certainty that the other of her albums have affected me as much as Is This Desire?, I still completely and utterly appreciate her willingness to experiment and reinvent the way she approaches music and record making. A great example of this is the way she went about making her most recent album Let England Shake where she began writing lyrics before creating the music - much of which was developed with the autoharp. A very fascinating challenge that afforded a completely new way of working. That kind of thing I find really inspiring.