Marty Wilson-Piper - The Church
"Is This Desire?, is PJ Harvey’s fourth album after Dry 1992, Rid Of Me 1993 and To Bring You My Love 1995. Those three albums saw her go from a sparse production on Dry to a rawer sound with Rid Of Me, to an experiment in more studied production on To Bring You My Love, albeit with some devilish vocals – and lots of lipstick. Is This Desire? was Harvey following on from To Bring You My Love and evolving, trying to find new ground, experimenting with direction, with rhythms, and more left of centre songs along with some intense feels. The first track Angelene is a case in point, (See Video Of The Day). A mid tempo amble concerning a wayward woman and her fate. The way she jumps in with the vocal without introduction is certainly to the point – piano, rhythm guitar bass and drums and the dark infectious melody, I was hooked. (The lyrics are posted along with the video). Her voice is spellbinding.
She goes all Velvet Underground on us on the short sharp shock of The Sky Lit Up the low vocal and then the high vocal giving the song its own personality.
The Wind is a whisper with some Captain Beefheart style backing – although she’s experimenting you can hear the influences. The drums make it her own and after the whisper her voice is intoxicating, the mood, the beat, it’s like Bristol if it was in the Arizona desert.
Catherine liked high places High up, high up on the hills A place for making noises Like whales Noises like the whales
Here she built a chapel With her image Her image on the wall A place where she could rest and rest And a place where she could wash And listen to the wind blowing
And listen to the wind blow And listen to the wind And listen to the wind blow
She dreamt of children’s voices And torture on the wheel Patron Saint of nothing A woman of the hills
She once was a lady Of pleasure and high born A lady of the city But now she sits and moans
And listens to the wind blow Listen to the wind blow
I see her in a chapel High up on the hill She must be so lonely Oh Mother can’t we give A husband to our Catherine A handsome one, a dear A rich one for the lady Someone to listen with her
And listen to the wind blow And listen to the wind blow And listen to the wind blow And listen to the wind blow
Portishead appears as a grinding bulldozer on My Beautiful Leah and this is where the real experiments begin, 1998 style, remember this is 15 years ago and her dabbling in loops and electronics was a whole new thing for her.
The women on this record seem to be lost souls Angelene, Catherine, Leah, and the next girl Elise – a more straight forward type after Leah but still grinding her way through her R’n’R in her own inimitable way. A Perfect Day Elise actually sounds like a U2 song and shows Flood’s influence in the production.
Catherine is the bitter tale of the lost lover. Doom laden drums and dark voice
Catherine De Barra You’ve murdered my thinking Gave you my heart You left the thing stinking I’d shake from your spell If it weren’t for my drinking The wind bites more bitter With each light of morning
I envy the road The ground you tread under I envy the wind Your hair riding over I envy the pillow Your head rests and slumbers I envy to murderous Envy your lover
‘Til the light shines on me I damn to hell every second you breathe ‘Til the light shines on me I damn to hell every second you breathe
I envy the road The ground you tread under I envy the wind Your hair riding over I envy the pillow Your head rests and slumbers I envy to murderous Envy your lover
‘Til the light shines on me I damn to hell every second you breath ‘Til the light shines on me I damn to hell every second you breath
‘Til the light shines on me I damn to hell every second you breath ‘Til the light shines on me
Oh my Catherine For your eyes smiling For your mouth singing With time I’d have won you With wile I’d have won you
For your eyes smiling For your mouth singing With time I’d have won you Oh my Catherine With time I’d have won you With wile I’d have won you
Sub Bass on Electric Light “The beauty of her under electric light turns my heart out every time”. The songs seem to be from the point of view of his pain not hers. This eerie song is like a scene from a lunatic asylum in a horror movie.
Drum machine on The Garden with sub bass again, it’s like she is trying to do what Radiohead did, break away from the constraints of her standard visceral indie view of the world – and she does. Keyboards change the mood of the song – a fragile melody, “There was trouble taking place”.
Joy grinds like a factory machine. All her characters seem to be in the third person, not speaking through her, more observed by her, like a Bronte novel with howling emotional winds.”No hope for joy”, is it her state of mind or does she have to be in the state of mind of the character to be inspired to create the mood. Abrupt end on this song, suddenly it stops.
The River with its soft parlour piano,”Throw your pain in the river” and moody evocative scenes:
And we walked without words And we walked with our lives Two silent birds circled by
Is that a trumpet at the end?
Drum loop heavy, No Girl So Sweet, with its distorted vocal reminds be again of Flood’s huge input into this record. Toni Halliday and Dean Garcia might wonder what went wrong with Curve if they heard this, perhaps with Flood it might have been different.
Last track is the title track,
“Is this desire, enough enough To lift us higher, to lift above ?
This character Joseph wonders about his fate like all her characters do. You feel like all her characters are disappointed but just starring in these songs should be enough for them.
Dark, moody, angst ridden and atmospheric but with memorable songs, ghostly melodies and both sensitive and aggressive characters, some already lost, others trying to redeem themselves. Her characters have dark eyes that reach down to the soul and you can feel their troubles and the timeless quality of their fates – not knowing if we are in the 19th or 20th century makes the whole record all the more intriguing."(from his blog)
I have always loved PJ Harvey, I’ve seen her live three times and always thought she had some kind of power, like she was plugged into a self regenerating ideas machine. Her changing styles that still sound like her, her changing looks that still look like her and her ability to be comfortable as herself the chameleon – like Bowie. Like an actor playing eight characters in the same play. I loved this album when it came out in 1998, bought the vinyl, and somebody told me recently it was worth tons of money, well it’s not for sale. Great clip of the first track, Angelene, from that album Is This Desire? Her voice on this track is intense. Love it.
“My first name Angelene Prettiest mess you ever seen Love for money is my sin Any man calls I’ll let him in
Rose is my colour and white Pretty mouth and green my eyes I see men come and go But there’ll be one who will collect my soul And come to me
Two thousand miles away He walks upon the coast Two thousand miles away It lays open like a road
Dear God, life ain’t kind People gettin’ born and dying But I’ve heard there’s joy untold Lays open like a road in front of me
Two thousand miles away He walks upon the coast Two thousand miles away Lays open like a road
It seems so far away I see men come and go Two thousand miles until I reach that open road
My first name’s Angelene”
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