Deep breath-
Here goes-

I've fallen out of love with Polly's work.
There, i've said it.

I'll go further, i have actually disliked her last 2 PJ Harvey albums.
I thought WC was simply poor, and whilst LES is lyrically brilliant and an exceptional body of work exploring war and it's consequences i still disliked it.
Neither of these albums 'pushed my buttons',i find most of the songs insipid and dull and her vocals at times start to grate.
For years i have defended her against my nearest and dearest's calls of 'she's a tuneless wailing banshee' I personally find most of her work thrilling, strong, ballsy,interesting and stimulating.
And whilst i realise she was never going to reproduce the beauty and caustic thrills of ROM & Dry i'm disappointed she's diverged so far from my personal taste.
I see on my itunes play count that WC&LES have a total of 30 plays in the last 3 years and whilst i've listened to the vinyl a couple times, that is very few listens considering Polly was my favourite artist by several thousand plays a few years ago.

I suppose i've been resigning myself to this reality for a couple of years and the recent announcement of the Somerset House recording shows confirmed it.I have no interest in seeing the recording process at work, i'll wait for the album and listen to the actual finished music.
I really hope the audience gets more than a roadie tuning instruments or pluging stuff in for 45 minutes, but it's not for me.
In fact, i think it borders on the pretentious and she looks bloody silly with a sax on her head!
First reports seem to imply this is LES markII, so i'm even less thrilled.

Her recent work is still interesting, but it doesn't thrill and stimulate me anymore and that's always been what i need from music- a thrill of some type.I still get a tingle up my spine at the start of Rid of Me, even after several hundred listens.

I'm not trying to upset anyone with these random thoughts, just thinking out loud.
Music comes down to personal taste and i'm just sad that Polly's music and i have grown apart.
I shall buy the album and possibly the poetry book, give them a chance and see what happens.
But i probably won't bother to see her live again.

Rich

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http://www.last.fm/user/dickie034
http://www.setlist.fm/user/dickie034

there's nothing wrong in your thoughts
we evolve

I still listen to her obsessively, but Let England Shake is by far my least favorite album of hers, so the LES II stuff concerns me a bit. I'll wait and see (listen) though.

it's regarded as a sequel?

No idea yet whether the new work is being presented as a sequel to LES, but certainly felt the track I witnessed today was not fitting that bill for me. I love LES, but this was different and enchanting.

I appreciate the thoughtful reflections of separation from Polly's work and hope you find some musical stimulus that fills that gap.

For myself everyone look where their own taste leads him. For example, as I have loved albums Dry and This is Desire, but I never loved Rid of me. The last album did not convince me. But when I listened Let England Shake gradually I recognized a great artistic potential. I consider this a great album. The path of artistic research i think is back in PJ. Now I hope her continue on this path. Can not be a LES II, but may have a close connection with it.

Sorry for English...

There was a couple of comments on the new album thread that suggested it might be 'similar' to LES. I i'm not really implying it is a 'part 2'. We have to wait and see.
I shall give it a listen and a fair chance.


derbyshirepaul-
....there is, in fact, far too much music about to thrill and stimulate at the moment.
I get rather frustrated i can't sample it all!!

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http://www.last.fm/user/dickie034
http://www.setlist.fm/user/dickie034

I don't disagree there at all!

hy!
(first of all sorry for my bad English)
i feel a little bit like it's been wroten but only a little..
Yes that Polly evolved, yes that she changed her way to make music,her way to use her voice...but she did this any time,record by record,as we still are "captured"by her first records...
i think that the worst is when an artist riproduce her/himself the same way,becoming a (bad)copy of her/himself when times around are changed; i may not like her last records(that are in any case brilliant) but i still trust her,appreciate her and her way to work ,always trying to take a new road.
And even i know that for the 80% i will not like the next record,I think that the Somerset recording sessions are a great think ,not many artists ever did something like that,showing to be so artistically brave and advanced.

Same here really. Particularly with LES, she sounds too detached; I know this is what she was aiming for, but for me it didn't work, she is the Flayed Woman Triumphant, so exposed that it's almost embarrassing, but so real you become overwhelmed & submerged by her passion. And all within a huge range, from something like Beautiful Feeling to Kick It To The Ground.

I have a horrible feeling she has nowhere left to go in Indie music. Having just seen a Brahms recital by Ian Bostridge (a tortured, transcendental performance if ever there was one) I'm wondering if Polly needs to change direction completely & explore classical music - perhaps in the way Frank Zappa did? There's still a huge creative force in there.

Same here also. I never connected with LES the way I did with her earlier stuff. After all the gut wrenching, incredibly powerful and emotional songs, songs of the heart really...then anti-war songs and politics?

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JelqPcoaAB8"

You guys are weird: "LES" is AMAZING. At first, neither do I get why it was getting so much praise, it seemed way too conceptualized and specific for my taste. I thought that stand-alone "war songs" like "Civil War Correspondent", "The Mountain" and "The Soldier" are way more effective and strong. LES was one and only Polly's album which I was completely sceptical about, and it took me a lot of time to really wrap my head around it (I watched A LOT of LES interviews and live shows) - but hell, IT WAS REWARDING. You can't label these songs as simply "anti-war" and "about politics" - they have ENORMOUS strength to them, like if they really were crafted by the different people for decades of social ordeals. For example, "All and Everyone" - I still have goosebumps every single time I listen to it (and that's at least a few times a week), and also during the verses it literally becomes physically hard for me to breathe (there's so much of dramatic edge in the voice and in this smashing guitar riff that you can easily imagine yourself as a soldier who gets thrown in the centre of the battle by the giant wave of other soldiers - and there's no time limits as well: it could be the First World War, or it could be medieval times, or even antic times for all you know). Or song like "In the Dark Places" - it is such an astonishing piece. You also have songs like "On Battleship Hill", "Written on the Forehead" and "The Colour of the Earth", which are psychedelic as hell. There's also a signature impeccable sound on EVERY song (both b-sides are truly amazing as well), all of them are really catchy, so I just don't understand all these complains.

Polly has never done a forgettable song - all of them are catchy and truly unique. Only she could take a current subject matter ("Shaker Aamer"), and make it timeless (her voice and music really do have this power IMO). So I'm, for one, is super pumped for her going even further in this direction.

As far as I ADORE Let England Shake and I consider it to be one of those "hands off" pieces of work that come out so rarely, I surely do not connect with it as much as I did with her previous work. I do love the music, but both the record and the live performances (I saw three in 2011 and they were basically interchangeable) made me feel like I was 'contemplating' or admiring her output for its perfection and thoughtfulness, rather than connecting with it in any visceral way. That I miss, big time. Whenever I see a video from the past for example, it somehow seems almost surreal that she used to be that bluesy, that dirty, that "out there". Which is telling: I think the LES aesthetic and sound were so peculiar and perfectly crafted that she almost made me forget she used to be that raw and provocative (or even vulnerable for that matter).

This Recording in Progess thing is the epitome of this whole process of intellectualisation. I think it is good, I think she found a new, complex dimension that sees her as a poet, a researcher, a singer songwriter and a rock star all the same. The reason why people like me sort of miss the rock star element is because she is still negotiating presumed low-brow and high-brow elements as they are commonly perceived in popular culture. Is she less of a rock star just because she teams up with Artangel and doesn't jump on the floor anymore? Is she less of an Artist because she tours and sings some of her best hits? So much has happened in 10 years! When they say she is an "institution" they are right, quite literally. Just compare where she is now and where she was in 2004. It is about how her work is framed, recognized, praised and located (Goldsmiths, somerset house, jeez!) as much as about the composure of the sound and the presentation.

I usually fall in love with the last work/album of her, since Is This Desire?
my favorite so far is A Woman A Man...
I do love her way of expression. I'm aware she has multi skills, from sculpture to poetry an music: Art
hearing she was displayed record installation, sharing her process of recording quiet shocked me, in a good way.
this made me happy, I also thought about Amanda Palmer Art Of Asking and how maybe all this stuff is generated by this
I like this Evolution and I think this Somerset House thing it's beautiful, I would love to be there
can't wait for the final product, and actually hear and see,
again

Well each to his own :-)

i don' miss a thing in Pollys Work for i listen to different kind of Music and whatever she did was brilliant - of course i wouldn't mind another Record in the Spirit of Rid of Me or to Bring you my Love - but she already did it - and my favorite Live Polly Experience has been the White Chalk Tour - Magic!!!!!!!!!!